Niki Tuuli became the first Finnish rider in World Supersport history to win a race after taking a hard–fought victory at Magny–Cours, while Lucas Mahias retook the championship lead.
Drama struck the WorldSSP 2017 championship battle on Saturday when standings leader Kenan Sofuoglu was declared unfit to ride in France due to a hip injury sustained in qualifying.
This gave Mahais a golden opportunity to retake the championship lead he lost in Portugal.
However, the Frenchman got roughed up at the start of the 19–lap race and almost fell from his Yamaha when he made contact with Sofuoglu‘s Puccetti team–mate Michael Canducci exiting the 180 corner on the opening lap.
At the front, Germany winner Sheridan Morais took the lead into the first corner ahead of pole man Niki Tuuli, while Mahias‘ GRT team–mate Federico Caricasulo slotted into third.
Morais held firm over his Kallio Racing team–mate in the early stages, though was visibly slower than the two chasing, and this allowed PJ Jacobsen and Jules Cluzel in fourth and fifth to edge closer to the lead group.
Mahias had worked his way back up from 19th at the end of the first lap to 11th by lap five, while Caricasulo sycthed past Tuuli for second.
Morais made a mistake into the 180 corner on the seventh tour and relinquished the lead to Tuuli, who had just retaken second from Caricasulo.
The top two immediately began to open out a gap, while Morais – who was 31 points adrift of the championship lead ahead of this race – lost ground to Jacobsen and Cluzel, eventually succumbing to Mahias‘ advances on lap 11.
As the race entered its final lap, Caricasulo – who had just set a fastest lap of 1m42.185s – hounded Tuuli to the chequered flag, but the Finn held his nerve to take a maiden win in WorldSSP, while MV Agusta’s Jacobsen completed the podium.
Mahias took the chequered flag in fourth to move nine points clear of the absent Sofuoglu in the standings, with countryman Cluzel rounding out the top five ahead of Lorenzo Zanetti and Canducci.
Morais made an error in the closing stages and dropped to eighth – his deficit in the championship now at 32 in third spot – with British duo Kyle Smith and Luke Stapleford completing the top 10. Compatriot Gino Rea, who was set to start fourth, was forced to pull out on the warm–up lap with a bike issue.
Hikari Okubo headed PTR Honda team–mate Chris Bergman in 11th, while Hannes Soomer took top honours in the European Supersprt Cup in 13th. Alex Baldolini and Christian Gamarino were the last of the podints scorers.
