Roberto Rolfo (Team Go Eleven Kawasaki) showed how much he likes the Sepang International Circuit last Sunday, as he played a major role in the first ever World Supersport race at the Malaysian track. The experienced Italian rider was on attack mode for the entire race, using tight racing lines like no-one else on track. Unfortunately for him, his ZX-6R was lacking in acceleration outside slow turns, meaning he lost significant ground on the two long straights every lap. Rolfo eventually ended up fourth, losing the battle for third to Sofuoglu for only one tenth of a second.

“I’m not fully satisfied with the race result” said Rolfo. “To be honest I’m quite disappointed because I felt the podium was within our reach but we were losing too much ground when exiting slow corners. We made big improvements since Friday and I would like to thank the team for the outstanding effort, they gave me the very best of what was available. After a good start I found myself in the top 5 and I started my charge to the podium places. I enjoyed the battles with van der Mark and Cluzel. I made a lot of passes and when I overtook Sofuoglu I moved up to third place. He overtook me on the penultimate lap and I did the same on the last one, but I lost the battle on the straight for just one tenth of a second. We will work on trying to find better acceleration, we need to build on this result and try to further improve.”