Carrasco secures historic World Supersport 300 title by one point

Ana Carrasco has become the first woman to win a solo motorcycle world championship title in a dramatic 2018 World Supersport 300 finale at Magny-Cours.

Going into the title-deciding round, Carrasco held 10-point lead with three other rides mathematically in the hunt for the world championship.

Despite seeing nearest rival Scott Deroue retire in the race due to a technical issue, Carrasco’s points lead hung in the balance with Mika Perez battling for the race win at Magny-Cours with the DS Junior Team Kawasaki rider fighting in the lower points places.

With the championship lead changing hands frequently over the final laps, including two switches on the last lap, Carrasco fought up to 13^th place and coupled with Perez dropping to second place at the chequered flag she clinched the world title by one point.

Carrasco becomes the first-ever woman to become a world champion at any level in motorcycle racing, having also become the first female to win a world championship race which arrived last year at Portimao in the 300 class.

With back-to-back wins at Imola and Donington Park fuelling her title charge this year, Carrasco dedicated her world title to Luis Salom who died in 2016 following a crash in practice for the Catalan Moto2 race at Circuit de Catalunya.

“It’s unbelievable for me, we worked so hard to be here,” Carrasco said. “I can only say thank you to all the Kawasaki team, I can only say thank you to David Salom and all the team, they worked hard to help me arrive here and also to my family because they gave me everything this year, and my friends.

“I wanted to dedicate this title to Luis Salom, we were good friends and the day we lost him I promised myself to dedicate my first title to him.”

It marks a historic weekend at Magny-Cours which saw Jonathan Rea clinch a fourth consecutive World Superbike crown to draw level with Carl Fogarty at the top of the all-time titles list. Markus Reiterberger also made history by becoming the final European Superstock 1000 champion with the class being disbanded at the end of 2018.