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Going into Donington Park, Italian Althea BMW rider Raffaele de Rosa was second in the points table on 57 – the same as leader Leandro Mercado, but with the Argentine rider counting on more victories. As the sun greeted the paddock in the UK from Friday, De Rosa set his sights on taking that lead for himself and was fastest in all sessions, having also had a podium in 2015 at the Derbyshire track and more experience at the parkland circuit. Mercado, although a veteran and previous Cup winner, had missed STK1000 single recent visit to the venue in 2015.

Setting the pace throughout the weekend, Italian De Rosa took pole position in qualifying before shooting off into the lead and all but disappearing in a stunning display of both pace and intent ahead of his home Round at Misano. With the victory taken by over three seconds over Mercado, who crossed the line P2, the Althea rider took the points lead with 82 to Aruba.it Junior Team rider Mercado’s 77.

“I’m very happy, also because we’ve been fast, in first place, in all of the weekend’s sessions, something that I don’t think I’ve ever done before,” said De Rosa. “We made a small change in warm-up that helped me in the race. The key point was the first corner; I managed to hold my position there, after which I worked to build a gap. I knew we had the pace and that we could fight for the win here, and everything went to plan. I thank my team for their great work here. It was important to win this weekend, at this point of the Championship, and now we want to continue in the same vein at Misano, another home round for us.”

STK1000 get back on track at Misano World Circuit Marco Simoncelli on the 17^th-19^th June on the Riviera di Rimini.