Can Oncu (Yamaha BLU CRU Evan Bros Team) returned to the winner’s step in the FIM Supersport World Championship at the weekend, winning Race 1 of the Pirelli Portuguese Round in emphatic fashion. The Turkish star claimed his second win in the Championship and his first in almost two years at the Autodromo Internacional do Algarve as he returned to winning ways, while also claiming his first victory onboard the Yamaha R9.

Oncu had spent five seasons with the Kawasaki Puccetti Racing team prior to his move to his new home, where he swapped for Kawasaki ZX-6R for the new-for-2025 Yamaha R9. On the green machine, the #61 claimed victory just once, in the 2023 Indonesian Round, before a troubled end to his time with Manuel Puccetti’s team after he sustained hand injuries at Assen in the following round. He was forced to miss most of that campaign through injury, after being diagnosed with left forearm fractures and needing surgery. It kept him off the WorldSSP bike from mid-April until the beginning of September, and he returned to racing action later that month. He secured his final podium in green at the end of the season, at Jerez, although remained with the team for 2024.

He made the switch to the Yamaha BLU CRU Evan Bros Team for this season, with the team running the new Yamaha R9 machine which has had early success since its introduction. Stefano Manzi (Pata Yamaha Ten Kate Racing) claimed victory in Race 1 at Phillip Island and has four podiums, while Oncu ensured Yamaha are the only manufacturer to have more than one win so far this season when he claimed victory in Race 1 at Portimao.

Oncu started the race from pole after he claimed his first P1 finish in Tissot Superpole, before going on to lead every lap of the 18-lap race. The gap to the chasing pack reached a peak of 3.709s on Lap 11 when the #61 led Manzi, before the Italian slowly closed the gap to his rival. However, Oncu was able to manage his pace to keep enough in hand for the final laps and, while the gap was less than a second across the line, Oncu was unchallenged by Manzi.

Reacting to his victory, Oncu said: “I’m very happy, I don’t know what to say! This is really emotional for me because after the big crash at Assen with Montella, I thought everything was over. Kenan always pushed me to never give up. We started from zero and every day, when I gave up, he was pushing me. Now we are here. It’s incredible. I don’t know what to say, I just want to say thanks to Kenan and to the team and Yamaha.”

Explaining his performances over the weekend, Oncu said: “There’s a lot of different things, like the work we did at home this year. It was very strong. Kenan told me that we had to really step up because we changed the team. We had to show something. That’s why I worked every day, and also with the team, we’re working from the morning to the night like crazy. I think this is the result. I’m proud of the team and everyone. This is a present for them.”

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