The Italian rider, who is on a run of strong form, set his intentions from Saturday morning where he managed to get second on the grid in a Superpole session that was red flagged in the final moments and not restarted. The session ended badly for Manzi’s team-mate, Jorge Navarro (Ten Kate Racing Yamaha), who suffered a heavy crash. The Spanish rider came away from the session in seventh but headed to the medical centre with left ankle contusions, he was later passed fit to ride in Race 1. It was a fall for Alvaro Diaz (Arco Yart Yamaha WorldSSP) which brought out the flag, although the young rider was thankfully also declared fit.Valentin Debise (GMT94 Yamaha) and Glenn van Straalen (EAB Racing Team) took ninth and 10th on the grid, although the latter lost a quick lap due to the red flag.
The opening lap of the race was muddled and messy as an incident saw many riders down, and forced Manzi to run off into the gravel, however the stewards quickly threw the red flag as it was clear there was a spillage from one of the crashed bikes. In the restart Manzi went for the holeshot but got squeezed out in the tight opening turns and found himself second. As the race progressed, Manzi was joined by a group of eager riders but the R6 rider was ready to fight for every position and every point, although he couldn’t close the leader and time was limited due to the shortened race distance, he held off all other challengers to take second at the flag and more useful points.
It was an eighth-place finish for van Straalen, and ninth for a recovering Navarro. Debise just missed out on a Top 10 finish in 11th.
