Parkalgar Honda rider Eugene Laverty reduced his arrears to just eight points behind World Supersport overall leader Kenan Sofuoglu after victory in round 11 in Germany.
Laverty recorded his seventh victory of the season with a pillar to post win from pole position, while Sofuoglu was unable to catch the Northern Irishman and second placed Gino Rea and the Turk had to be content with third place in the end.
Laverty and Brit Rea battled it out at the front for the entire race in first and second positions and despite the best efforts of Rea to overtake Laverty in the closing stages, the Ulsterman's greater experience and coolness under pressure allowed him to take the flag by just 0.058 seconds.
Rea's lightning start from fifth on the grid and subsequent runners-up spot means that Laverty and Sofuoglu will fight it out for the title on an even footing going in to the final two rounds of the series with Sofuoglu on 219 points to Laverty's 211.
After the race, Laverty explained how delighted he was to win after initially struggling with the set up of the bike.
"Gino hung in there all race and pushed me all the way," Laverty said. "It's good for the championship that Gino was between myself and Kenan [Sofuoglu] because that's brought the gap down to eight points just now.
"Before this race Kenan could just sit behind me and finish second every race, but that's all changed. I'll be looking to move to Imola and France now and try to push hard for the win again.
"It certainly wasn't easy here, we struggled on Friday to find the right setting and were really behind Kenan, but thanks to my crew for finding a good way on Saturday. I really didn't expect pole position and the lap times I was able to run were fantastic.
"In the warm-up we tried some different things and personally I think we went in the wrong direction, just because the temperature was different in the warm-up and in the race the bike wasn't good. I was really struggling but it means a lot to win when things aren't right, but the bike was fantastic and I can't fault it."
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