Source: Pata Honda.

After a titanic race at Portimao Michael Van Der Mark (Pata Honda World Supersport Team) has taken the eighth round victory in this year’s World Supersport championship after overcoming immense pressure from Jack Kennedy (CIA Insurance Honda) and former champion Kenan Sofuoglu (Mahi India Racing Team) who completed the podium.

Misano race winner Jules Cluzel (MV Agusta Reparto Corse) looked like making it a four rider fight before the Frenchman overshot at turn three before eventually retiring.

The opening half of the race gave the fans a real treat with some of the closest WSS racing of the year before championship leader Van Der Mark edged clear in the closing stages to win his fourth race of the year after a red flag because of rain stopped the race on lap 13.

“We’ve been strong all weekend in all sessions and, together with Kenan, I think we have been a step ahead of the others here,” Van der Mark said. “My start was okay, but I didn’t want to take all the risks in the first few corners. I was looking at the guys in front of me to see where I was stronger and I tried to pass them one by one.

“Kenan made a mistake so I passed him and then I got past Jack. I knew I had a good pace for the race and the others would struggle to follow my rhythm and in the end I saw that Jules wasn’t in the points any more so I slowed down a bit.

“I guess I was quite lucky that the rain came at the same point and the red flag came out, which made the win a little bit easier. But I think I could have won anyway because we have been so strong all weekend. I want to thank the team again fo r giving me such a good CBR from the first session, it was really fast and had really good handling.”

Sunday’s result means that the Dutchman has never finished lower than second all season with the exception of his Phillip Island crash. For Kennedy it was his first podium finish after moving into World Supersport, the Irishman finally showing his true potential.

Behind the top three Raffaele de Rosa rode well to bring the second CIA Insurance Honda home in fourth ahead of PJ Jacobsen (Kawasaki Intermoto Ponyexpres) and Lorenzo Zanetti. (Pata Honda World Supersport Team).

2014 FIM Superbike World Championship
Round eight – Portimao, Portugal

Supersport results:
1. Michael van der Mark
2. Jack Kennedy
3. Kenan Sofuoglu
4. Raffaele de Rosa
5. PJ Jacobsen
6. Lorenzo Zanetti
7. Kev Coghlan
8. Florian Marino
9. Roberto Rolfo
10. Massimo Roccoli

Supersport championship standings:
1. Michael van der Mark 160
2. Jules Cluzel 107
3. Florian Marino 93
4. Kenan Sofuoglu 83
5. Lorenzo Zanetti 80
6. Kev Coghlan 77
7. Raffaele de Rosa 67
8. PJ Jacobsen 67
9. Roberto Rolfo 62
10. Roberto Tamburini 48

Click here for detailed results