Francisco J. Palomera won the opening ESBK Spanish Superbike Championship race of the weekend at Circuito de Navarra this afternoon (Saturday).
The Team Honda Laglisse rider delivered a second victory of the season, following a previous win in the season opener, to defeat reigning champion Steven Odendaal by just 0.269s. This came at the end of a short, five-lap race to the flag following an earlier red flag. This was caused after a fall for Roman Ramos.
Odendaal’s result continues his record of running towards the front as he defends the title. But he is yet to win a race himself. Mauro Gonzalez, riding for BMW Easyrace Team, completed the podium and also crossed the line first in the Stck 1000 class.
He was followed home by Anton Eremin, who only narrowly managed to defeat Finnish rider Ville Valtonen to fourth. Behind them came Paco Morales, Javier del Olmo and Javier Artime. Charles Aubrie and Ola Nesbakken completed the top 10.
Behind that, multiple champion Ivo Lopes, who traditionally achieves strong results at the venue in northern Spain, could only ride to an 11th place finish.
ESBK Spanish Superbike Championship, Circuito de Navarra, Race 1
- Francisco J. Palomera, Team Honda Laglisse
- Steven Odendaal, New2 Project, +0.269s
- Mauro Gonzalez, BMW Easyrace Team, +7.064s
- Anton Eremin, ERNA Racing, +11.012s
- Ville Valtonen, Team Sensetec, +11.346s
- Paco Morales, British Carrera, +19.211s
- Javier del Olmo, Kawasaki JDO Racing, +28.376s
- Javier Artime, Team Honda Laglisse, +29.085s
- Charles Aubrie, Team RLD Racing, +29.908s
- Ola Nesbakken, Team Honda Laglisse, +35.230s
Click here to view the full result.