Stefano Manzi took a statement victory in the first FIM Supersport World Championship race at Balaton Park, charging from fifth on the grid to chase down title rival Can Öncü to take his sixth victory of the season.
It was a challenging Friday for the Italian as he faced the task of learning the brand new circuit, but the Pata Yamaha Ten Kate Racing rider salvaged sixth in Superpole before a promotion to fifth following the disqualification of another rider. Launching off the line, Manzi was into third on the opening lap and while Öncü (Yamaha BLU CRU Evan Bros WorldSSP Team) looked in control in the early stages with up to a second’s lead, Manzi was able to chase him down to win by over three seconds at the line.
The victory sees Manzi extend his lead back up to 50 points ahead of Öncü, who is now 37 points ahead of third placed Tom Booth-Amos.
Roberto Garcia (GMT94 Yamaha) continued to impress, launching into second in the early stages of the race before a race-long battle for the podium. Unfortunately, the Spaniard missed out to cross the line fifth but just three races in to his WorldSSP career, it’s surely only a matter of time before a debut rostrum comes his way.
Aldi Satya Mahendra (Yamaha BLU CRU Evan Bros WorldSSP Team) was able to recover from a tough qualifying to finish 11th, while GMT94’s Lucas Mahias crashed out in the early stages.
Manzi will move up to pole position for Sunday’s second race, with Öncü joining him on the front row in third. Lucas Mahias has a chance for redemption from fourth, with Garcia starting ninth.
Race 2 gets underway at 15:15 local time.
Stefano Manzi – Pata Yamaha Ten Kate Racing
Race 1: 1st
“It was a super good race as to be honest, yesterday we were struggling a bit but I felt we could have a strong race. This morning we made a step forward and the team worked so hard with the bike on this new layout, and I enjoyed the race a lot and had a lot of fun. It will be a bit easier to start from pole position tomorrow, especially on this tight and challenging layout. Now we need to see how the weather is tomorrow as the forecast is not so good and we do not have a lot of experience with this bike in the wet, but whatever we will give it our best and see what happens.”
Posted on Saturday, July 26th, 2025 by Michael Le Pard
