Lucas Mahias ended a dramatic opening day at Magny-Cours in World Supersport fastest of all, while championship leader Kenan Sofuoglu crashed.
The opening session at the French circuit was a relatively trouble-free affair, with GRT Yamaha’s Mahias – who is four points adrift of Sofuoglu in the standings – topping the morning timsheets with a 1m41.502s from the Turkish rider.
The second session was halted after just five minutes when a multi-rider crash, instigated by a fluid leak from Luke Stapleford’s Triumph, occurred at the Adelaide hairpin.
Stapleford, the returning Roberto Rolfo and GRT Yamaha’s Federico Caricasulo all went down in quick succession at the corner, though thankfully all were unhurt and able to return to their garages.
After a short delay, the session got back underway, and championship leader Kenan Sofuoglu – who was second in the first session this morning – set the early pace with a 1m42.222s.
Another red flag at mid distance brought the session to a stop once again, this time for oil left on track by Kyle Smith’s Lorini Honda.
The fluid caught out Sofuoglu, Kazuki Watanabe, Lachlan Epis and Lorenzo Zanetti – who were following each other at the time – out and the quartet slid into the gravel at Turn 6, with Puccetti rider Sofuoglu narrowly avoided by the oncoming motorcycles.
Sofuoglu‘s Puccetti team was able to fix his ZX-6R to get the Turk back out on circuit for a quick shakedown in the final few minutes, though he stayed second on the combined times.
Mahias looked as if he was set to better his time from this morning, but narrowly missed out with a 1m41.668s in dying seconds. This time was still good enough, however, to see him top the second session as well as the combined standings.
Caricasulo – who along with Mahias re-signed with GRT Yamaha for 2018 this week – completed the top three on the combined times ahead of MV Agusta’s PJ Jacobsen and the Kallio Racing Yamaha of Niki Tuuli.
A podium finisher in last year’s race, Tuuli headed team-mate Sheridan Morais, the South African one of only 15 riders to better their time from the first session.
Alessandro Zaccone, who also improved in the afternoon, was the leading European Supersport Cup contender in seventh ahead of Jules Cluzel and Michael Canducci, while Britain’s Gino Rea was the last of the direct SP2 placeholders in 10th.
Lorini Honda was able to fix Smith’s mechanical issue, though the Briton could not improve on 13th and will face SP1 on Saturday with compatriots Stapleford (14th), Stefan Hill (19th) and Kyle Ryde (21st), who crashed at Turn 15 this morning.
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