Albert Arenas narrowly missed out on a maiden podium in his debut race in the FIM Supersport World Championship as the new season got underway at the iconic Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit today.
The 2020 Moto3 World Champion was forced to sit out of the morning’s warm up session with an electrical problem, putting Arenas and the new AS BLU CRU Racing Team on the back foot ahead of Saturday’s 18-lap race.
It was 2025 runner-up Can Öncü who took the holeshot on his Pata Yamaha Ten Kate Racing R9 from fourth on the grid, but the Turkish rider would lose several places after a moment on the last corner, allowing his rivals to get away.
Starting seventh on the grid, Arenas progressed nicely in the opening laps to join Öncü at the front, moving ahead of his Yamaha rival at the mid-stage point. A multi-rider battle for the final podium spot ensued, with the two R9s along with local rider Oli Bayliss fighting it out for third place.
Despite the best efforts of Öncü and Arenas in the closing laps, Bayliss was able to build enough of a gap to secure the rostrum finish while Arenas pipped Öncü to fourth by 0.022 seconds at the line on the final lap to round out an impressive debut race.
GMT94 Yamaha’s Lucas Mahias had made strong progress throughout the race to join the back of the podium battle before crashing out in the second half of the race. He was able to re-join and finish 24th. Team-mate Roberto Garcia finished ninth.
Aldi Satya Mahendra had his work cut out starting from the back of the grid after an issue in Superpole, but the Indonesian star got a remarkable start to sit 15th at the end of the first lap. He’d eventually cross the line 13th overall. Yuki Okamoto was 17th on the second Pata Yamaha Ten Kate R9.
With the grid for Race 2 set by the fastest laps from Race 1, Lucas Mahias (GMT94 Yamaha) will start as the highest placed R9 in fourth ahead of Can Öncü. Arenas will again line up seventh. Lights go out for the second race of the weekend at 14:30 local time.
FULL RACE 1 RESULTS
Albert Arenas, AS BLU CRU Racing Team – Position: 4th
“I need to thank my guys, my data guy especially, as they did an incredible job after we had an electronic issue in Warm Up and it was difficult to fix before the race, which made things a bit harder for us! Despite this, I could perform well and fought back from my position on the grid, it is a shame to miss the podium but I think we gave 100% of what we had today. I am still getting to know this class and this bike, having two races per weekend is completely new to me so we get to try again tomorrow!”
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