Spain’s Ana Carrasco became the first-ever woman to win an individual world championship motorbike race when she crossed the finish line in a close battle at the World Supersport 300 class on Sunday at Portimao, Portugal. The 20-year-old inched ahead by a mere 0.053 seconds to win round 10 of the FIM Supersport 300 World Championship, reported BBC.
The Spaniard won her first race at what is considered to be one of the most challenging circuits in the calendar. It was a tough battle for 11 laps and the top three were separated by only the tenth of a second, according to the World SBK website. The final laps saw her overcome pole-sitter Alfonso Coppola and Marc Garcia to secure her historic win.
“I am very happy about this result,” she was quoted as saying by World SBK after her win. “I want to share it with all my team. We have worked very hard and we have been making progress in each race ... I am very happy and I would like to thank all of them, as well as my sponsors, since without them this would not be possible.”
Carrasco had been racing since 2013 and scored her first point at Sepang the same year to become the first female to get points in in Grand Prix racing since Katja Poensgen in 2001, according to Motorsport. Previously, her best result this year was seventh place but this win means she has climbed up to seventh in the standings, 45 points below the championship leader Coppola.
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