Steven Odendaal extended his lead in the 2025 ESBK Spanish Superbike Championship with victory in Saturday’s opening race of the weekend. The South African benefited from drama involving pole-sitter Roman Ramos, but did enough to ensure victory after 17 laps of the circuit in northern Spain.
Ramos had started from pole position but was eliminated from contention following an incident which also involved fellow front runner Ivo Lopes. This left Odendaal with a golden opportunity to race home from the front which he did on his New2 Project machine.
The winning margin was small however, with Odendall crossing the line just 0.150s ahead of Francisco J. Palomera on the leading STCK1000 class Honda. Christophe Ponsson completed the podium over 10 seconds further behind the leader.
Behind that, Mauro Gonzalez was fourth with Ville Valtonen completing the top-five, one place ahead of Juan Pablo Uriostegui. Lopes did manage to finish the race but was classified only in seventh, the best part of a minute adrift of first place. Samuel Diaz was classified eighth.
ESBK Spanish Superbike Championship, Race 1
- Steven Odendaal (New2 Project)
- Francisco J. Palomera (Team Honda Laglisse), +0.190s
- Christophe Ponsson (Alma Racing Team), +10.940s
- Mauro Gonzalez (Deza – Box 77 Racing Team), +35.383s
- Ville Vatonen (Team Sesetec), +44.809s
- Juan Pablo Uriostegui (Team Honda Laglisse), +46.502s
- Ivo Lopes (BMW Easyrace Team), +55.224s
- Samuel Diaz (Tecniracing), +1m10.437s