Round four of the 2021 World Supersport Championship took place last weekend on the legendary Dutch circuit of Assen. There were only two clear candidates for the win from the start of the weekend, Steven Odendaal (Evan Bros. Racing Team) and his closest championship rival, Dominique Aegerter, with the pair being half a second clear off the rest of the pack in free practice. Starting from the second position of the grid, the young South African got the hole shot before pulling away together with Aegerter and taking a second position in race 1 after the chequered flag. Whilst the weather looked unpredictable on Sunday morning, the second WorldSSP race was dry in the end and very much resembled race 1 from the outset, with Odendaal and Aegerter able to break away after an initial battle in the first laps and with only Philipp Oettl able to stay with them in the opening stages of the race. Getting held up in a battle with Jules Cluzel at the beginning, the Evan Bros. Racing Team rider was in the process of closing a small gap on the leading duo when he made a mistake and crashed out. He was able to re-join in 20th position and, setting the same lap times as Aegerter in the front, finish the race in 13th position.
Steven Odendaal (2nd, 13th): “The first race went really well. We gambled a bit with the tyre choice and decided to go with the harder compound, whereas Aegerter had the softer. I think that’s the reason why he had a small advantage at the end because I did not have enough grip in the final laps to pass him. We decided to use the softer tyre in the second race but I made a mistake. Luckily my crash was small and I was still able to salvage a couple of points but it was very disappointing seeing that I was the only person on track doing the same lap times as Aegerter at the end and I was not able to challenge him for the win. We will be back stronger in Most and fight for the win again. Thanks to my team, sponsors and everyone who’s been supporting me this year. The championship is still wide open with 16 races left, we are sitting comfortably in second position in the standings and we only have one objective going forward.”
