Riding as a replacement for Can Öncü, who is continuing on his path of recovery from injury, Mahias earned seven more championship points for his ninth place finish.

Qualifying in tenth place af ter Superpole Mahias worked hard in the hot ambient temperatures of 35°C, with the track surface reaching 58°C at the start of the race. The race was ended with one lap left to run due to two rider crash, with Stefano Manzi taking the win after leading every one of the 16 laps.

Race Two at Imola will take place on Sunday 16 July, but at an earlier time of 12.30 compared to Saturday’s 15.15 starting slot.

Lucas Mahias, stated: “It’s been a positive day. I went quite well in Superpole and qualified tenth. The race went more or less as I thought it would, although I’d hoped to do a little better. My feeling with the bike is improving and we’re consistently closer to the front runners. I want to thank the team for all their hard work today.”

Adrian Huertas (MTM Kawasaki) was deeply unfortunate to fall during the incident on the penultimate lap of the scheduled 17-lap race that caused the red flag to be shown.

Niki Tuuli fell immediately in front of Adrian in the final chicane, with Huertas unable to avoid his rival. Adrian also fell hard, if at relatively slow speed. He was eventually classified tenth in the race, as the results were called back to the last timed sector that each rider had passed through before the red flag appeared.

Stefano Valtulini (Prodina Kawasaki) replaced regular rider Yuta Okaya at Imola. Yuta ws unable to race after contracting a severe case of gastroenteritis. Valtulini raced to 15th place and scored a championship point. Luke Power (Motozoo ME AIR Racing Kawasaki) was 19th in the opening race, having qualified 27th in Superpole.

John McPhee (Vince64 by Puccetti Racing Kawasaki) had to retire from the opening race with a technical issue.
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