Can Öncü will start the first-ever FIM Supersport World Championship race at Hungary’s Balaton Park from second on the grid after securing the honours of top Yamaha R9 on the opening day at WorldSBK’s new venue.
With the sunshine beaming down on the circuit, located close to Lake Balaton, Öncü left it until late in Friday’s Superpole session to set his time of 1’43.100, 0.3 seconds off pole position for the Yamaha BLU CRU Evan Bros WorldSSP Team.
It was a challenging first day for championship leader Stefano Manzi (Pata Yamaha Ten Kate Racing) having never seen the circuit before, but the Italian was able to recover from 12th in FP1 to secure a second row start in sixth position after the afternoon’s Superpole qualifying.
GMT94 Yamaha’s rookie Roberto Garcia continued to impress and will start ninth on the grid. Team-mate Lucas Mahias had a difficult first day with a crash in the closing stages of Superpole preventing him from climbing higher than 19th on the grid.
Aldi Satya Mahendra (Yamaha BLU CRU Evan Bros WorldSSP Team) will start 21st, while the second Pata Yamaha Ten Kate Racing rider is absent this weekend as he continues to recover from the injuries he sustained at Donington Park.
The opening WorldSSP race of the weekend will get underway at 15:15 local time.
FULL FREE PRACTICE RESULTS
FULL SUPERPOLE RESULTS
Can Öncü – Yamaha BLU CRU Evan Bros WorldSSP Team
“A new track and a new adventure, I enjoyed today a lot. We made a good step from free practice and I am happy to be second on the grid. Today was generally a very positive day, we just need to keep going in this direction. For tomorrow we have things to improve, but hopefully I will be in the fight with the guys. I’m very excited, because this is a brand new track for us so I am looking forward to the race.”
Posted on Friday, July 25th, 2025 by Michael Le Pard
