In the Superstock 1000 European Championship race at the Pirelli French Round a great last lap battle between two home riders, Jeremy Guarnoni (Pedercini Racing Kawasaki) and Florian Marino (Pata Yamaha Official STK1000 Team), saw Guarnoni take a tight victory over his compatriot Marino. Italian rider Federico Sandi (Berclaz Racing Team) took third place to complete the podium.
Guarnoni got the better of Marino in the final stages of the race, outpacing his fellow Frenchman on the last lap to ultimately cross the finish line by a 0.414s winning margin for another Magny-Cours triumph. The second place result for Marino, meanwhile, keeps him in the title fight going into the final round at Jerez in three weeks’ time.
In third place Sandi was followed across the line by fourth placed Roberto Tamburini (PATA Yamaha Official STK 1000 Team), who started the race on pole.
The Superstock podium. Photo ©WorldSBKIllia Mykhalchyk (TripleM Racing), Mike Jones (Aruba.it Racing – Junior Team), Sebastien Suchet (Berclaz Racing Team), Luca Vitali (Nuova M2 Racing), Maximilian Scheib (Nuova M2 Racing) and Michael Rinaldi (Aruba.it Racing – Junior Team) completed the top ten. Rinaldi holds the lead in the standings, eight points ahead of Marino with one round to go.
Championship contender Toprak Razgatlioglu (Kawasaki Puccetti Racing) missed the race due to injury (right shoulder dislocation) after a crash in FP3
on Saturday and he now trails Rinaldi by 14 points in the championship.
In the European Supersport Cup, which is held in the context of the World Supersport Championship, the winner was Hannes Soomer from Estonia followed from Rob Hartog from the Netherlands and Jaimie van Sikkelerus from the Netherlands.
