Albert Arenas and AS BLU CRU Racing missed out on a second victory of the season by an agonising margin in a TT Circuit Assen thriller, with the Spaniard losing out on the win by 0.080 seconds.
Arenas, who started on the front row of the grid lost ground in the early stages, dropping back as far as seventh place. Meanwhile, sporting a special livery to commemorate 25 years of Ten Kate Racing, Can Öncü (Pata Yamaha Ten Kate Racing) took the early lead.
The threat of rain had been ever present throughout the day, and despite some drizzle the race remained dry as the laps counted down, with a train of riders in contention for victory at the halfway point. Arenas had made progress, and was up to second by lap nine.
A big fight on Lap 14 saw multiple changes of positions, with Can Öncü losing out after colliding with another rider. The Pata Yamaha Ten Kate Racing rider had to take evasive action and ran off the track at the final chicane, rejoining further down the field.
The biggest benefactor of the Lap 14 chaos was polesitter Lucas Mahias (GMT94 Yamaha), who had been out of the podium battle until this point. At this point, Debise led the race from Masia with Mahias and Arenas also in the mix.
This quartet would battle for the win on the final lap, and Arenas looked to be in a strong position to take a second win of the year as he headed into the final chicane as the leader. However, a classic Geert Timmer chicane move from Masia saw Arenas lose out, despite an attempt to run his countryman to the line.
Mahias lost the most on the final lap, as he missed the podium after a last chicane move and crossed the line fifth. Öncü recovered to tenth after his earlier off-track excursion.
GMT94 Yamaha’s Roberto Garcia crashed out unhurt early in the race, while Aldi Mahendra (AS BLU CRU Racing) and Yuki Okamoto (Pata Yamaha Ten Kate Racing) finished 15th and 19th respectively.
Arenas remains second in the title chase, 11 points off the lead, and will start Sunday’s Race 2 from pole position having set the fastest lap on Saturday. He’s joined on the front row by Roberto Garcia (GMT94 Yamaha). Mahias starts sixth and Öncü 12th.
Albert Arenas (AS BLU CRU Racing) – Race 1: 2nd
“It was a positive race with a strong result. I struggled at the start, I had two moments as the rear tyre did not come up to temperature very quickly – I dropped a lot of positions but fortunately as the heat came into the tyre I was able to come back. I tried to win the race, especially on the last lap – I wanted to push from first on the last lap to try and avoid the same kind of last lap chaos we saw in Portimão. Second place is good, of course I wanted to win but second is OK and we can hopefully fight again tomorrow!”
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