Donington, Race 1: Booth-Amos (Triumph) takes home victory – Philipp Öttl 6th.

In the Supersport class qualifying session at Donington, Yamaha rider Can Öncü secured pole position. Championship leader Albert Arenas (Yamaha) and Tom Booth-Amos (Triumph) finished second and third respectively. However, the Briton will not be able to start from the front row in Saturday’s race, as he has been handed a penalty. Because he had too many slow sectors during qualifying, he has been demoted by six places on the grid. Booth-Amos will therefore start the race from ninth on the grid – directly ahead of Philipp Öttl (Ducati). Andrea Giombini was also demoted by six places for the same reason. The Italian will have to start from the back of the grid. Simon Jespersen was demoted by three places for dawdling on the racing line, which means he will start from 21st on the grid. Dominique Aegerter (Kawasaki) started the race from 13th on the grid, whilst the Austrian Andreas Kofler (Yamaha) started from 26th.

Öncü, Arenas and Alcoba thus formed the front row. Mahendra, Masia and Debise started the race from the second row.

Ahead of the two races at Donington Park, Albert Arenas held a 56-point lead over Valentin Debise (ZX Moto) in the overall standings. Jaume Masia (Ducati) was in third place.

Pole-sitter Öncü got off to the best start. Arenas and Mahendra emerged from the first corner in second and third place respectively. Federico Caricasulo crashed in Turn 7.

After the first lap, the order at the front remained unchanged. Philipp Öttl was still in 10th place. Kawasaki rider Alcoba dropped from third to ninth.

By lap 2, Öncü had built up a half-second lead over Arenas. Roberto Garcia set the fastest lap of the race.

On the third lap, Öttl was in 9th place, whilst the three Yamaha riders remained at the front. Tom Booth-Amos (Triumph) set the fastest lap of the race. Agerter remained in 13th place.

By the fifth lap, Öncü’s lead had already grown to six tenths of a second. Marcos Ramirez was forced to pull his bike over to the side of the track due to a technical problem. Mahendra then overtook Arenas, but the World Championship leader immediately fought back. Booth-Amos set the fastest lap once again and was already in 6th place. Öttl was still ninth.

On lap 7, Mahendra managed to overtake Arenas again. Öncü had a lead of just under seven tenths of a second at the front.

On the eighth lap, Booth-Amos overtook Garcia and Masia – he was already fourth and right on the tail of Arenas. One lap later, the moment arrived – Booth-Amos overtook Arenas. Öttl was already eighth. Ahead of him, Alcoba had fought his way up to seventh place.

With ten laps to go, Aldi Mahendra took the lead. Booth-Amos also managed to overtake Öncü. Shortly afterwards, Arenas also overtook the Turkish rider. At the end of this eventful lap, local hero Booth-Amos took the lead. The Triumph rider was on a mission on Saturday.

One lap later, his lead over Arenas – who had in turn overtaken Mahendra – was over a second.

The order with eight laps to go: Booth-Amos, Arenas, Mahendra, Öncü and Masia.

In the next lap, Öncü worked his way back up to third place and Arenas set off in pursuit of Booth-Amos. Öttl was already in seventh. Masia crashed at Turn 12.

With six laps to go, Booth-Amos and Arenas had built up a lead of over a second. Kawasaki rider Alcoba had worked his way up to fourth place. One lap later, he was battling with Öncü for third place.

With five laps to go, Booth-Amos’s lead over Arenas was over a second. Arenas, in turn, had a lead of over two seconds over Öncü and the rest of the chasing pack.

With three laps to go, Booth-Amos’s lead had grown to just under two seconds. Öttl was already in sixth place because Mahendra had a near-crash.

On lap 18 of 19, Booth-Amos was already three seconds ahead, whilst Arenas had settled into second place. Alcoba was third.

On the final lap, Tom Booth-Amos didn’t put a foot wrong. He took the win ahead of Albert Arenas and Jeremy Alcoba.