The ultimate round of the Coppa Italia championship was held at the famous MotoGP circuit of Mugello, and it was set to be a grand finale with a double header in store for the 600 Avanzato class, with Race 1 on Saturday afternoon and Race 2 on Sunday afternoon. This meant that the qualifying for both races was down to one 20 minute qualifying session which was held on Saturday morning.
The weekend started off positive on the Friday with lap time in the low 2’03s set in both the second and third sessions. The team had finally found a setup for the ‘Engineer’ which gave him the confidence to push himself and the bike further than he had done in the past. The saturday morning qualifying session was a testing one for the ‘Engineer’ as with only 7 minutes left on the clock he had only managed a 2’04.3s, he re-entered with renewed determine and within 2 laps he had set his new record with a 2’02.582s which only secured his position of 13th on the full grid of 42.
Race 1 was incredible for Yas29, he got off to a reasonable start and made up 4 positions within the first lap, it took him 3 laps to settle into a rhythm before he start to make in roads and close the gap for 8th. After 2 laps on following the Honda rider closely studying his opponent the ‘Engineer’ pounced as he went up the inside at the tight Correntaio bend, the Honda rider quickly respond go into Bucine ahead of Yas29 but the Yamaha rider had the better line to get the drive out of the final corner and easily past the Honda. On the very next lap lap he passed the 7th placed rider and was then on the hunt for 6th position to lead this pack. On lap 8 the ‘Engineer’ passed his rival and was set for a 6th place finish but the race was red flagged on the very same lap due to an incident elsewhere forcing race direction to call the results by taking the positions from the previous lap and the official results show Yas29 as finishing 7th.
Race 2 was hotting up to be another thriller but with heavy rainfall overnight and the track drying but very slowly it was difficult call for the riders. The ‘Engineer’ decided to change from dry to wet tyres before entering the circuit, pitlane was just about to close when he entered the circuit, this meant that he reached the grid late. Unfortunately the ‘Engineer’ had made the wrong choice and therefore had to change back to dry tyres on the grid. Time was against the team and with the clock running down and the team facing some difficulties with the front brake calipers, it was down to clerk of course to request that the bike be removed from the grid and disappoint had struck the team as they missed the opportunity for another great race and the opportunity to improve on the shortened Race 1.
