Second race weekend of the season 2021

The FIM Supersport World Championship’s second race weekend was run last weekend in Portugal, on the Estoril Circuit. In Saturday's Superpole, Estonian Hannes Soomer cleared his way to eight position on the grid, and Finnish Vertti Takala to 20th position on the grid. Due to a penalty Niki Tuuli received from Aragon, the starting positions for Saturday's race rose one ranking with both riders.

Friday and Saturday were challenging days overall, as finding a good feeling for the bikes was a bit difficult. At some parts of the track there seemed to be too much grip, while in some other parts there was too little grip. In addition, Estoril Circuit was entirely new for Takala. Despite the challenges, a solid race was run on Saturday, with Soomer finishing 8th and Takala ranked 18th.

Race engineers worked hard with riders trying to find improvements to both bike and riding, and mechanics kept the bikes in good condition through the weekend. Going towards Sunday, things were moving in the right direction. In the second race of the weekend, Hannes Soomer raced to finish in 5th place and Vertti Takala ranked 13th. After the first two race weekends, both riders have nicely scored World Championship points.

“Hannes improved considerably on Sunday, and the changes we made helped him ride in the top group. With wise riding, Hannes rose to 5th position at the end of the race, which felt good after a hard and heavy battle. The direction for the adjustments on the bike is clear and we will continue to work in Misano,” says Vesa Kallio, the team manager of Kallio Racing.

“Vertti had some problems with the brakes on Saturday, but they were resolved and on Sunday Vertti rode nicely to points. Now let's just keep working hard and try to develop areas that will help Vertti to be even more competitive. But let's move forward one step at a time,” Vesa Kallio ponders.

Hannes Soomer:
”It was quite a tough weekend for me. All weekend we were struggling in exactly the same place on the track like last year. We made good progress for Sunday though which gives us some ideas also for the next races. We have now survived the first two weekends with solid finishes. It is very important to start the season in a good way to be able to improve and start fighting for wins now. Thanks to the team for the good job and on to Misano!”

Vertti Takala:
“The weekend was positive and instructive; I got a better feeling to the bike already. The track was new to me, there was quite a lot of learning about it and the practices actually went into it. There was a slight problem with the brakes in the first race, they got a bit overheated, but we got them fixed and the second race already went a lot better. From this, it's good to continue to Misano.”

The World Supersport season 2021s third race weekend is going to take place in Italy, Misano from 11 to 13 June 2021.

Race results

Saturday:
https://resources.worldsbk.com/files/results/2021/EST/SSP/001/CLA/Results.pdf?version=3f254ea62985e67d70d5751fd79112ed&_ga=2.80549335.1976102017.1622394076-682451930.1621688428

Sunday:
https://resources.worldsbk.com/files/results/2021/EST/SSP/002/CLA/Results.pdf?version=3f254ea62985e67d70d5751fd79112ed&_ga=2.21953019.1976102017.1622394076-682451930.1621688428

Championship standings:
https://resources.worldsbk.com/files/results/2021/EST/SSP/002/STD/ChampionshipStandings.pdf?version=67e649219847fb6e7ff3ae98ae3ca54c&_ga=2.21953019.1976102017.1622394076-682451930.1621688428


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