Rising Italian star Vannucci took a fantastic top step on Saturday at the Autodromo Internazionale Enzo e Dino Ferrari di Imola which he looked to repeat on Sunday. The final race of the weekend was held in extremely hot conditions, and a pack of three took to the head of the race, Vannucci rode his R3 brilliantly as he went into battle with Kurt Geiger and fellow Yamaha rider Humberto Maier (Yamaha MS Racing/AD78 Latin America Team). The trio kept the pace up until the end of the 13-lap race, swopping places countless times in the closing laps and thrilling the watching crowds. Although Vannucci made a great pass for the win, he was later demoted to second after he was deemed to have exceeded track limits at Turn 13. However, he still moved up the championship standings to second, just 17 points from the lead.
Meanwhile, Maier’s excellent performance and third place finish promoted him up one place in the championship. The R3 bLU cRU European Championship graduate now sits in fifth place.
Former title leader Mirko Gennai (Team BrCorse) had a race to forget as a technical issue ruled him out towards the end of the race and he was forced to retire. This dropped him to fourth in the standings, but he remains in touch at just 21 points down.
