2019 FIM SUPERSPORT 300 WORLD CHAMPION
GONZALEZ IS THE MAN
Manuel González (Kawasaki) emerged as the standout rider in the 2019 FIM Supersport 300 World Championship, claiming more wins than any other rider and taking the title with a round to spare. The youngster from Madrid gave a hint of his potential in the final three rounds of 2018, when he scored three consecutive podiums – the first, at Misano, making him the youngest rider to feature on a WorldSSP300 podium, one month before his sixteenth birthday.
After switching from Yamaha to Kawasaki for 2019, González took his first pole position in the opening round at Aragón and then shattered 2017 champion Marc García’s record as the youngest WorldSSP300 race winner by a full ten months. Another victory followed in round two at Assen before torrential rain at Imola saw the race cancelled and rescheduled as a double-header at Jerez.
Garcia (Kawasaki) picked up his first win of the season in race one, but González fought back to beat him by just 0.019 seconds in race two, with defending champion Ana Carrasco (Kawasaki) a further 0.029 seconds further back. Carrasco then took her first win of the campaign at Misano but a cool second from González ensured that even a no-score at Donington Park, when he crashed and hurt his shoulder on a wet track, caused minimum damage to his healthy points lead.
Second place behind the consistent Dutchman Scott Deroue (Kawasaki) at Portimao meant that twelve points over two the final rounds would be enough, but González bucked the trend in WorldSSP300 by wrapping things up with a round to spare, thanks to a perfectly-judged second place behind Carrasco at Magny-Cours.
PALMARES
FIM Supersport 300 World Champion – 2019
