- Cluzel on podium [Copyright: World Supersport]

WorldSSP: Cluzel fends off Cortese to claim third win for NRT at Brno

The new Indian outfit has surprised many on the grid with their supreme run.

Darshan Chokhani posted in Motorsport India & World

3y ago

2.5K

The seventh round in the 2018 World Supersport Championship started off on a sound note for the Indian NRT outfit as Jules Cluzel topped two of the three practice sessions (FP2 and FP3), while finished second in one of them (FP1) at Brno on his Yamaha R6.

Teammate Thomas Gradinger was on pace as well finishing seventh, fourth and ninth respectively to make it straight into the Superpole 2 for the first time this season. The Austrian qualified 10th on his #36 bike with a time of 2m04.465s.

Meanwhile, Cluzel (2m03.323s) fell short in the pole fight as he finished third abode his #16 Yamaha with Kallio Racing’s Sandro Cortese (2m02.670s) taking pole from BARDAHL’ Randy Krummenacher (2m02.274s) – the Top 3 separated by 0.653s. Cluzel’s clocked 0.222s slower than his FP3 time.

Race

It was a dream start for NRT's Cluzel in the race on Sunday after the Frenchman took the lead in the opening lap to get ahead of pole-sitter Cortese with Krummenacher dropping to third in the order.

Cortese fought back to retake the lead but not for long as Cluzel was back on top as they tussled for the rest of the 16 laps with MV Agusta's Raffaele De Rosa joining in to make it a three-way fight.

However, it was Cluzel who reigned supreme taking the win by 0.148s margin from Cortese as Rosa completed the podium at a distant after falling off from the two. It is Cluzel's third win of the season and sixth consecutive podium abode the Yamaha for the new outfit NRT.

Teammate Gradinger scored his best result as well after making up four places to sixth in the opening two laps of the race. The Austrian then fended off couple of riders early on to take a comfortable Top 6 result.

The victory for Cluzel (120) has bridged the gap further in the riders' standings as the Frenchman is now only two points behind championship leader Cortese (122). Gradinger has moved to ninth with 40 points.

In the teams' standings, NRT has leapfrogged Kallio Racing to be second with 160 points with GRT Yamaha in the lead scoring 182 as they now head to Misano in Italy during July 6-8 for Round 8 in the 2018 season.