Magny Cours - Friday

After a Thursday marked by unstable weather conditions and heavy rain, Friday saw sunny skies set the stage for the start of the French round of the Superbike World Championship, taking place at the Magny-Cours circuit.
During the afternoon, more precisely from 4pm, the Superpole of the Supersport class took place.
In the first half, Öttl kept pace with the top-place finishers, but with 21 minutes to go, he crashed at Turn 7. He returned to the track with just over 6 minutes to spare and, on his first lap, managed to set the seventh-fastest lap. Just as Philipp looked set to improve his time further, the session was interrupted by a red flag with two minutes to go, forcing him to settle for eighth.
At the end of the Superpole, Race Direction then handed the German rider a 3-place penalty for "impediment", meaning he will start Race 1 from eleventh on the grid.

Philipp Öttl (#65):
“Day 1 is over. The free practice session went well, and the feeling with the bike was very good in qualifying. I crashed on some oil left by another bike, but the team fixed everything quickly, and I managed to earn 8th place. I'm motivated for tomorrow's race; let's see what we can do.”