In a captivating WorldSSP race, Lucas Mahias made it a third consecutive win at Losail whilst Randy Krummenacher did enough to become the first Swiss WorldSSP Champion!

The final chapter of the 2019 World Supersport Championship beckoned and it was a vital WorldSSP race, with all three Championship contenders starting from the front row. 15 laps of all out action between the title contenders was on the horizon, and the stage was set for an incredible grand finale. Taking victory in an 80km tussle at Losail, Lucas Mahias (Kawasaki Puccetti Racing) was the winner but Randy Krummenacher (BARDAHL Evan Bros. WorldSSP Team) took fifth, enough to become the first World Supersport Champion from Switzerland.

With the title on the line, the most anticipated race of the World Supersport season commenced, with the GMT94 YAMAHA duo of Jules Cluzel and Corentin Perolari hit the front, making lightning starts from third and fourth on the grid respectively. Randy Krummenacher hit third place, whilst Federico Caricasulo was only fifth, the top two in the Championship split by Lucas Mahias (Kawasaki Puccetti Racing). At the end of Lap 1, Isaac Viñales (Kallio Racing) completed the top six.

The two BARDAHL Evan Bros. WorldSSP Team Yamahas of Krummenacher and Caricasulo began to lose positions. Mahias got ahead of Krummenacher at Turn 1, whilst Caricasulo was barged out the way by Viñales at Turn 6 and then by Kyle Smith (Team Pedercini Racing) at Turn 10. The Italian fought back at Turn 1 on Lap 3, although he couldn’t make it stick. Smith then went ahead of Krummenacher. Lap 3 concluded with Cluzel leading, whilst Caricasulo and Krummenacher were sixth and seventh respectively; the Italian slipstreaming ahead on the front straight.

The front four had escaped at the head of the field, with Cluzel leading Mahias, whilst Perolari made it a provisional all-French podium, whilst an in-form Isaac Viñales (Kallio Racing) had gone with them in fourth. Now into fifth place, Caricasulo began to edge clear of Smith and Krummenacher and chased down the leading quartet. However, as it stood, Krummenacher would still be Champion. Krummenacher made his way into sixth place down into Turn 1 on Lap 6.

On Lap 7, Caricasulo set the fastest lap of the race, whilst Isaac Viñales made a mess of Turn 1 and went wide from fourth. With the front four battling, Caricasulo and Krummenacher were edging nearer, making for a six-rider battle in prospect. At Turn 1 on Lap 8, Viñales pinched third from Perolari, whilst Lucas Mahias captured first place from Jules Cluzel at Turn 4. Come the end of the lap, Mahias had pulled out a 0.3s advantage, whilst the top six were covered by just under 2.5s.

Outside of the top six, Kyle Smith was occupying seventh, whilst Raffaele De Rosa (MV AGUSTA Reparto Corse) was in eighth place ahead of Hikari Okubo (Kawasaki Puccetti Racing) and Ayrton Badovini (Team Pedercini Racing).

Caricasulo made it to fourth at Turn 1 with four laps to go, putting Perolari in between himself and Krummenacher. However, that was still good enough for the Swiss to become Champion, although Perolari was disrupting the battle for both the title contenders, adding an extra spice to the closing stages of the race.

Lucas Mahias had broken clear at the front and took a third consecutive win at Losail, ahead of a valiant Jules Cluzel in second and Isaac Viñales in third – a third consecutive podium for the Spaniard. In the chasing Championship battle, Caricasulo was fourth whilst Randy Krummenacher was fifth, enough to give him the WorldSSP Championship in 2019. Corentin Perolari was sixth, being pipped on the run to the line by Krummenacher. Raffaele De Rosa made it to seventh ahead of Okubo, Smith and Badovini.

“I pushed a lot for the victory today. When I was at the front I tried to be as fast as possible to avoid other riders passing me. This win is good for me, for Kawasaki and for my team since is one of the tracks where they also struggled to win in the past, so it was my goal for the weekend.  It is a good motivation for the future”.

Randy Krummenacher crowned 2019 WorldSSP Champion
Swiss star wins the title in the final race of his third WorldSSP season

Randy Krummenacher (BARDAHL Evan Bros. WorldSSP Team) is the new king of the FIM Supersport World Championship, after holding on to his advantage over teammate Federico Caricasulo and Jules Cluzel (GMT94 YAMAHA) in the final race of the year.

The middleweight class thus crowns another German-speaking Champion one year after Sandro Cortese’s fantastic achievement as a rookie. Krummenacher is the first Swiss rider to become World Champion in the World Superbike paddock and only the fourth if adding MotoGP™ (joining Luigi Taveri and Thomas Luthi, 125cc Champions, and Stefan Dörflinger, 50cc and 80cc Champion).

2019 was the year that Krummenacher added consistency to his undeniable talent. After promising yet uneven spells in the 125cc World Championship and Moto2™, the man from Zurich landed in WorldSSP with a bang in 2016, winning his first race in the series. It would be his only win that year, but several more promising results gave him the chance to step up to WorldSBK in 2017 alongside Puccetti Racing.

Krummenacher was back in WorldSSP for 2018 and, in similar fashion to his rookie season, made another instant impact by winning the second race of the year. The BARDAHL Evan Bros. rider starred in an unbelievable comeback at Assen one month later, yet the pieces never quite fell into place for the rest of the year, having to settle for fourth in the standings.

Facing his third year in the class, Krummenacher remained with the BARDAHL outfit as they expanded to a two-rider lineup and the payoff was immediate. The Swiss rider dominated in Phillip Island as he did in his rookie season, leading every single lap, before adding a hard-fought second position in Thailand after battling through from eighth.

Yet again, Krummenacher headed into the European rounds as the WorldSSP championship leader. In previous years this was where his championship challenge would start to unravel – but not this time. A brave last-lap move over Raffaele De Rosa handed him a second victory in three races at MotorLand Aragon, with teammate Caricasulo behind in third after leading most of the event.

The tables were turned in Assen seven days later, when the Italian youngster caught Krummenacher off-guard in the last lap to take his first victory of the campaign by just 0.032 seconds, in what was the first true head-to-head battle between the pair in 2019. It would be far from the last.

Embittered by that late defeat at Assen, Krummenacher repaid the favour four weeks later at Imola by snatching his third victory of the year with just five turns remaining, increasing his championship lead to 22 points in the process.

Yet his teammate would not be one to give up so easily either, and in Jerez, once again we saw Caricasulo besting Krummenacher by the finest of margins to snatch back five points from his championship lead. The pair, clearly driven by each other’s success, not to mention the prospect of a first World Championship medal, put on a clinic in Misano two weeks after, rubbing shoulders right through the final corners. This time, once again, Krummenacher prevailed.

Donington Park broke the streak of BARDAHL one-two finishes with a Jules Cluzel victory (his second of the campaign), and for the first time in 2019 Krummenacher did not feature on the podium. Yet the Swiss star still managed to show his excellent form, climbing his way through the field from an unfortunate fourth row start to finish fourth and less than a second behind the eventual race-winner.

Still, Caricasulo was back on his trail and in Portimao, on the other side of the summer break, the Italian closed the gap to just 10 points thanks, in part, to a stroke of luck. The pair had returned to rubbing elbows throughout the race before a red flag forced an early conclusion. Final results were based on standings at the end of the last completed time-keeping point… Which was mere seconds after Caricasulo had overtaken Krummenacher for the race lead.

Momentum seemed to be slowly shifting towards the Italian rider and the first lap at Magny-Cours did little to dispute that thought, after a highside left Krummenacher down and out, his first DNF in over two years. Caricasulo cruised into the race lead at the same time and everything was in place for him to become the new championship leader.

And then the 23-year-old crashed. Twice. The crisis had been temporarily averted, Krummenacher was back in control and with a first match point set for Argentina. Here, the tension reached a boiling point with the teammates clashing inside the final laps and Krummenacher lamenting a lack of power. Neither man was on the podium and with Cluzel’s win this became a three-fight for the floodlit final round.

Yet Krummenacher remained with an 8-point advantage over Caricasulo and 22 over Cluzel. Not a single point more was needed: the Swiss reverted his late misfortune and powered through to a career-defining title win. Strength of attitude, a crisp-cool personality and overtakes for days: World Supersport has a Champion to be proud of.

The Krummenator is Champion! Congratulate King Krummi on social media with the #Championator21.

“This feeling is so great. I’ve been working for 24 years to achieve this goal. It is such a big thing that I still quite can’t realize it. I am thankful to all the persons that have supported me, to my family that stayed behind me even on the bad days, they pushed me to win. Thank you!”.