Can Öncü (Yamaha): “We’ve gained some positive insights”

With Stefano Manzi, the Dutch Ten Kate team won the 2025 Supersport World Championship. After the Italian was promoted by Yamaha to the Superbike category, runner-up Can Öncü was set to defend the title for Ten Kate. However, after eight of twelve rounds, the young Turk has once again only managed to finish second – he currently sits fourth in the overall standings with 178 points, already 31 points behind this season’s surprise package Valentin Debise, who rides for newcomers ZX Moto and is in second place.

To make up the deficit, Öncü must score points ahead of the Frenchman at each of the four remaining events. However, this will be a challenge at Debise’s home race at Magny-Cours.

One advantage for the Yamaha rider is that, thanks to a guest appearance in the British Supersport series at Thruxton (where he secured a second place and a win), the 23-year-old has maintained his racing rhythm; he also completed a test session on the French circuit.

“I’m really looking forward to the upcoming weekend at Magny-Cours. I had a good summer break, as I trained every day and prepared myself perfectly for the remaining races on the calendar,” says Öncü confidently. “We recently had two days of testing at Magny-Cours and were able to try out lots of different things. It looks as though we’ve gained some positive insights. So I’m looking forward to testing them again this race weekend. My aim for this weekend is to achieve the best possible result for myself and the team, as we’ve worked so hard over the past few weeks. I want to reward everyone for their efforts.”

Ten Kate was not alone at the Magny-Cours test, however: among the other Supersport riders present were Debise and his ZX-Moto team-mate Federico Caricasulo.