Lorenzo Alfonsi (Althea Honda Team CBR600RR) only found good set-up from his machine in morning warm-up, and from 19th on lap one he finished eighth, his best finish of the year so far. He had qualified only 22nd, but his eight points for eighth place now put him 12th in the championship fight, with 26 points in total
Sofuoglu was peerless after a nervous first couple of laps, and set a new lap record in the race of 1’50.550 seconds, to go with his circuit best Supersport lap from qualifying, 1’50.459 seconds.
“I was really nervous before the race because this is a long track with long braking points and it is difficult to open a gap, ” said the championship’s class act of 2007. “I had quite a bad start and I was in sixth or seventh position to begin with, but this was actually quite good because it gave me a chance to judge the other riders’ speeds. I knew that I was faster and I pushed to take the lead. Once I had it I didn’t want to push too hard, I just tried to maintain the lead I had - and it worked. I am really happy to extend my lead, but there are seven races to go and that is seven races I need to be on the podium in, so there is still a lot of work to do. I am keeping my focus. ”
Fujiwara was back to his best once up to speed at Monza, but his first braking performance, which saw him run straight on at the first chicane, determined everything for his finishing position.
“I had a good start from the first row but when I braked I lost a gap to the front after the first corner, ” said the Japanese star. “I could not reduce the gap because the others in front were really fast. With a five second disadvantage after the first three laps there was too much to do to get to the podium. ”
Charpentier is now in 17th place in the Supersport championship, and is mystified as to why his raceday turned out as it did.
“I don’t know exactly what happened today, it is difficult to explain the problem at the moment because I need to sit down with my mechanics and go through all the data from the race, ” said the 2005 and 2006 champion. “I lost grip after about ten laps, particularly on the exit to the Parabolica. It has not been a good day, but I hope I can get good results at the next race because for the moment it is very difficult for me. I try my best all the time in practice, but for some reason during the race it is just not working. ”
Alfonsi found his hard work in qualifying unrewarding until raceday, when he and his team cracked the eventual Monza set-up code.
“We found a good setting in warm-up so thanks to my team for all the hard work to get the bike ready to make a good race, ” said Alfonsi. “The feeling with the bike was better and I made my best lap of the whole weekend in the race. Not so bad. ”
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