WorldSBK Indonesia: Oncu victorious in WorldSSP race one

Puccetti Kawasaki’s Can Öncü opened his WorldSSP victory account with a dominating performance at Mandalika on Saturday.

The Turkish rider secured the race one win, his first since joning the Supersport field in 2020, by over three seconds from Althea’s Federico Caricasulo with Dynavolt Triumph’s Niki Tuuli third.

A sharp shift in weather from the morning’s qualifying found a strong wind bringing in heavy cloud cover over the Lombok Island circuit as the Supersport class lined up for race one. Last weekend’s double winner Nicolo Bulega headed the grid following his maiden pole performance a matter of hours before with Caricasulo and Öncü alongside on the front row.

The rain arrived ahead of lights out for 18 laps. The initial smattering affecting all sectors but light enough for the action to ignite on slick Pirelli rubber. Bulega took charge as the pack released before Caricasulo swept through to lead with Öncü capitalising on the Italian duo as the opening lap completed. Bulega falling backwards to sixth by the start of lap two with Tuuli up to third on the Street Triple RS.

Last weekend’s podium sitter Nicholas Spinelli sat fourth on the VFT Yamaha after an eighth place start before both he and Tuuli captured Caricasulo ahead. Stefano Manzi making moves into the top six on the Ten Kate R6.

The battle for third continued as the race unfolded. Caricasulo attempting to hit back at his fellow Italian before Spinelli returned the advance. The pair bickering as lap four began with the Althea pulling a two then four-tenth gap next time around.

Bulega’s race picked up pace as the Aruba rider returned to seventh on Manzi. Glenn van Straalen fighting Raffaele de Rosa for fifth ahead on their respective EAB Yamaha and Orelac