Fabien made a dash to the lead at his team’s home circuit before the chasing Sofuoglu and Broc Parkes closed him down on lap 13 and Sofuoglu passed on lap 14. At that point another rider crashed and with his machine stranded on the racing line the red flag was displayed and the result called after 13 laps, and with full points allocated.

That left Foret the winner, for the second time this year, and promoted him to third in the championship. Sofuoglu was obviously disappointed not to win but his second place, and a fourth place finish by his main championship rival Sam Lowes, extended his championship lead to 23 points.

Sheridan Morais (Kawasaki Lorenzini) was finally seventh in the race, having started ninth on the grid, and is sixth overall in the points now. Romain Lanusse (Kawasaki Intermoto Step) was 11th, and is 17th in the standings. Stefano Cruciani (Puccetti Racing Team Italia Kawasaki) finished tenth and Florian Marino of the new MSD R-N Racing Team India squad took his Ninja ZX-6R to 13th, a vast improvement on his starting place of 23rd.

Kenan Sofuoglu: “I think there is a wall for me to first position recently! But it is not so bad because I knew I could catch Fabien and I just waited to catch up with him. Finally I did and passed and I still had energy to improve and push for the last four laps and improve. Then I saw the red flag and at that moment I thought I was more than one lap in the lead and I was in first, but when I got back they told me I was second.

So many right now I have a little bit of bad luck, but still we are leading the championship and pulling a gap. That is the most important thing. Sometimes you can do everything but winning is not for you. But it is not so bad.”

Fabien Foret: “We made a plan this morning with Andrew my crew chief and I tried to respect it by pushing really hard at the beginning of the race to make a gap. I was struggling to keep the gap and when you are at the front you are a reference for the riders following behind. When I saw the riders coming by I just kept it calm and tried to save a bit of energy for the last three laps. Kenan passed me and I could see that I was a bit faster than him in some places, and he was definitely a bit faster than me in other places.

I tried to adjust myself a little bit on the bike and then the red flag arrived. I was a bit upset because I though I had been passed for the lead at this stage but it turned out it was my weekend. It was good to win, very good.”

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