Sofuoglu fell on the wet warm-up lap and had to compose himself before the 16-lap race got underway.

Despite having less than perfect preparation for full wet conditions he rode with confidence, despite slipping back at the halfway point, but he hunted down Imre Toth to secure his podium and 16 very welcome points.

He is now ten points ahead of Sam Lowes, who was second today behind race winner Jules Cluzel, with 61 points to the English rider’s 51. Former joint leader Fabien Foret (Kawasaki Intermoto Step) was only 12th today in truly horrible track conditions and Fabien is now third in the points, with 49.

Sheridan Morais (Kawasaki DeltaFin Lorenzini) was in a good position until a slippery patch claimed him and he was highsided off. He was lucky to not be injured as his bike bounced back out onto the track after hitting the barriers and he will be ready to race again at Donington next weekend. Sheridan is now 13th in the points, with 17.

Kenan Sofuoglu: “I was happy in dry conditions and everything was perfect with our set-up for that. We did not make a really wet practice; only for the last five minutes when the track was wet. We tried something in the morning for those conditions and it worked out. I was just hoping we could get really good points before the race, even in wet conditions, but then I crashed on the warm-up lap. I crashed too easily and I was thinking that there was no grip on the track. At the beginning of the race I was too slow, after half the race I was getting the speed up but already Cluzel and Lowes had pulled a big gap. I knew third position was possible so lap-by-lap I caught up with Toth and passed him for good points. I think we should be quite happy to get this kind of results in these conditions.”

Sheridan Morais: “It was dodgy conditions but the thing we are worried about the most was standing water, but that did not seem to be much of a problem. We had only been able to do a few laps in wet conditions but in the race there we not too many issues. Unfortunately I had a bit of a highside and that put me out but I was feeling pretty good before that. The bike came back out of the barrier and hit me pretty hard, so I am banged and bruised up but luckily nothing is broken.”