A weekend of success and satisfaction for MV Agusta. Just a few hours after French rider Jules Cluzel clinched his second pole position of the season in the Supersport race at Sepang, the rider Massimo Roccoli (Team Laguna Moto Racing) raced his F3 675 to a clear victory at Imola in the fifth round of the Campionato Italiano Velocità.
In Sepang, instead, Cluzel spent the entire race on the attack, the battle continuing all the way to the finish line. It was a photo finish, but championship leader Michael van der Mark just had the edge.
The heart-stopping battle was initially a four-way affair involving not just Cluzel and van der Mark but also Sofuoglu and Rolfo. In the final laps, though, Cluzel and van der Mark managed to pull away and ended up duelling right down to the last few metres.
Going into the final corner Cluzel braked as late as possible, going a little wide and giving his rival the chance to slip through on the inside. They took the chequered flag side by side, with van der Mark winning by a wafer-thin 0.018 seconds.
Jules Cluzel: “The rear tyre was starting to lose grip, so I tried not to push it too hard and save something for a late attack. I made a mistake on the last lap, and it cost me first place. Nevertheless, we’ve improved a lot over the last few races and I’m confident we can raise our game even higher”.
Thanks to today’s outstanding performance the young French rider has risen up the rankings and now lies in second place with 82 points, 33 behind the man at the top of the leaderboard, van der Mark.
His teammate Vladimir Leonov finished fourteenth.
In the Superbike category, instead, Claudio Corti had an unlucky day and was forced to retire from both races.
The next round will be in two weeks’ time at Misano Adriatico, Italy.
