Jeffrey Buis on Saturday won the first World Supersport 300 race at the Circuito de Barcelona-Catalunya. The Dutchman managed to cross the line with just 0.052 seconds ahead of Samuel di Sora and Mirko Gennai.
Due to reckless racing in FP1, Humberto Maier, who won the pole position, had to start the race from the back. As a result, Fenton Seabright, Jose Luis Perez Gonzalez, and Alessandro Zanca started from the first grid, while Buis started from fifth grid.
There were problems just before the start for Ruben Bijman. His Yamaha YZF-R3 refused to work, stopping him on the grid. A few moments before the lights went out, Bijman raised his hand, but it was just too late: the race had started.
Fortunately, all riders managed to avoid him and it ended well, eventually Bijman got his machine started and he was able to start the race with a big gap.
Buis got away well and immediately took the lead ahead of Zanca and Perez Gonzalez. The MTM Kawasaki rider pushed hard to make a small gap and stay out of the crowd behind it. Teammate Loris Veneman was in fifteenth position.
Buis tried everything he could to keep ahead of the pack, but that came to an end at the start of the fifth round.
The riders behind him made optimal use of the slipstream, as a result of which he dropped from the lead to sixth position in one go.
In a large leading group of about nineteen riders, there was a fierce battle with overtaking actions in almost every corner.
In the penultimate lap there was a crash with many involved in turn 10. About six riders crashed, including Loris Veneman. This reduced the leading group to ten drivers who would do everything they could for the win in the last lap.
Buis came out of the slipstream and went into the first corner in the lead, knowing that it would be a matter of defense in the remaining thirteen corners.
Buis did this excellently, so that he eventually crossed the line as the winner with a margin of only 0.052 seconds. Di Sora was second, Gennai third. Bijman crossed the finish line in twentieth place.
