Philipp Öttl shot down by a Ferrari - the apology failed to materialise

After his strong qualifying on Friday afternoon and 4th place on the grid, Philipp Öttl was optimistic for the first race on the Adriatic on Saturday. The rider from Ainring came back from the first lap in sixth place, in the second lap he made contact with the tarmac and the gravel bed. "I had a skid in the corner before that, then Ferrari overtook me on the inside in turn 4 and his front wheel slipped off," Philipp told SPEEDWEEK.com. "I had no chance."

Embarrassing: The 29-year-old Italian from the WRP Ducati team was unable to make an apology.

Öttl was able to get his scuffed Ducati back to the pits for repairs and return to the track six laps late. Although this did him no favours in the race itself, the top nine on the list of fastest race laps made up the first three rows on the grid for the second race on Sunday - Philipp managed the sixth fastest time.

"We tried to react as relaxed as possible, the guys did a great job preparing the bike again," he said, praising his Italian team. "When I saw the lap times, I thought to myself that the top six should work. I could have filled the gap between Debise and Öncü."

Valentin Debise secured the sixth win of the season for the new Chinese brand ZX Moto, with the Frenchman crossing the finish line 0.107 seconds ahead of world championship leader Albert Arenas from the Swiss team AS Yamaha. Öncü finished a good 5 seconds behind in third place. With 121 points, Öttl is currently fifth in the world championship, 32 points behind Öncü from Turkey.