Supersport Most: Debise makes it four for ZXMoto—now China is a serious threat

The future is already here: Valentin Debise sweeps Supersport Race 1 at Most with the increasingly formidable ZXMoto. The manufacturer was supposed to arrive last year but moved up its plans: this is the fourth triumph in nine races. A dream World Championship debut.

The fifth round of the junior series also delivers a show, with the Yamahas long in front and the only surviving Ducati clinging desperately to the leading train. But in the finale, with tires already shot, Debise changed pace and made short work of the R9s of Can Oncu and Albert Arenas. Setting the race lap record on the very last lap leaves the suspicion that the ZXMoto had even more in reserve. The gap wasn’t decisive, but the Frenchman would have defended first place anyway even without the fireworks. Impressive.

It’s also worth noting that Valentin Debise was forced to start from the second row due to a three-place grid penalty for impeding Jaume Masia in early practice. The drop proved irrelevant; it looked like the Yamahas would settle it among themselves, but the ZXMoto is becoming more and more threatening. The big loser of this Race 1 is Can Oncu, who started from pole but still has to postpone his first win of the season.

The former Moto3 world champion had never raced here, coming from the MotoGP paddock which has never been to Most. But he needed only one session to get up to speed with the others and, when all was said and done, he took home a hugely valuable third place. In fact, he once again finished ahead of his compatriot Jaume Masia, fourth. The Ducati rider started too far back (fourth row) and produced his usual big comeback, which, however, cost him the energy and tire grip that would have been useful at the end. It should be noted that Ducati, in this current phase of balancing among Manufacturers, seems excessively penalized. In fact, all of them have disappeared from the podium area; only Jaume Masia remains, who is pure talent.

In this Supersport, for now the only Italian spark is the splendid Evan Bros, the Ravenna-based outfit that has given wings to the ZXMoto. As for riders, we have to make do with Matteo Ferrari’s seventh place; he battled with Jaume Masia for a long time and finally finished seventh ahead of Filippo Farioli.

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