Kenan and eventual winner by only 0.184 seconds, Jules Cluzel, were locked together in a battle on the final lap after Sofuoglu had taken the lead. After losing some time on the final tour of the 4.592km circuit, Sofuoglu accepted second place rather than go for a risky attempted pass on the fast final right hand corners.
The next Kawasaki Ninja ZX-6R rider in the race order was Christian Gamarino (Team Go Eleven Kawasaki) who was a strong seventh, his best result of the season. He is now 11th in the rankings, with 31 points.
Marco Faccani (San Carlo Puccetti Racing Kawasaki) had to settle for 12th today but is still inside the top ten in the championship, with 36 points in ninth position overall.
Dominic Schmitter (Team Go Eleven Kawasaki) scored two points for 14th place at a warm Portimao.
Kenan Sofuoglu: “Second was not too bad because this race was not going to be easy because in all the sessions Jules was strong. In the race I saw he was not too fast so I attacked but in the meantime the tyre grip had dropped. When I passed him I was sliding in the corners and I thought, “OK, if we can win we will win, but if not no problem, I will take the 20 points.” Our goal is to take the title. On the last lap when he attacked me I answered him back but later he made a mistake, missed the line and I had to push the brake mid corner. Then there was a small gap and it was impossible to attack again. We are in a good place in the championship so we have to be clever to stay on the bike and make maximum points to take the title. This is our main goal so I am happy for today’s result.”