Rinaldi tops opening day at Misano as WSBK Rnd 3 gets underway

2021 FIM Superbike World Championship
Round Three – Misano – Friday

Home hero Michael Ruben Rinaldi (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) topped the timesheets on Friday ahead of the Pirelli Made in Italy Emilia-Romagna Round of the 2021 World Superbike Championship. Rinaldi had been the long-time leader in Free Practice 1 before a late lap meant he was usurped by Turkish sensation Toprak Razgatlioglu (Pata Yamaha with BRIXX WorldSBK) in the closing stages, but Rinaldi was able to respond in the afternoon session to post a time of 1’34.334s, three tenths clear of Alex Lowes (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK), who put in a strong lap towards the end of Free Practice 2.

Michael Rinaldi – P1

“It was a very positive day especially because we were able to make some big steps forward. This morning we were fast but I wasn’t happy with the feeling with the bike. The team did a great job between FP1 and FP2 and in the afternoon I was able to push more effectively. When we work like this we can only be satisfied with ourselves. Tomorrow we will give our best”.

Alex Lowes – P2

“We did not test here this year but a lot of others did. We used an SC0 tyre in the morning session because in the previous two rounds we have been quite fast on this tyre choice. But at this track the SC0 seems to be spinning a bit too much so in the afternoon we made a small change on the bike, nothing really big, and used some different tyres. We made a good step compared to this morning without changing too much on the bike. There are some bumps into turn three and a little bit in the last corner where you are on the entry, but apart from this the track surface is great and the grip is better than I remember. For me, it is a very good job.”

Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK) and Razgatlioglu both posted a 1’34.848s across the day, with Razgatlioglu setting that time to top Free Practice 1 session, while Rea found almost a second between the two sessions; Rea losing some track time in the opening session.

Jonathan Rea – P4

“We have had some people in the spectator areas at this round this year and it is nice to see. Racing is nothing without the fans. In FP1 I didn’t have any rear brake and it was frustrating. I couldn’t ride in the same way and I couldn’t balance the bike in the entry to the corners. We wasted the first session trying different things but during the lunch break the guys swapped the system from bike 2 to bike 1 and directly it was better. I felt good from the first lap of FP2; the rhythm was coming. I enjoyed the circuit and I was able to understand the new rear tyre that Pirelli brought here. At the very end I also tried the new front tyre, so we have a lot of information now. In the afternoon I felt quite consistent on the tyres and felt good on the bike, so let’s see what tomorrow brings.”

Razgatlioglu was classified in third place with Rea in fourth although the Turkish rider did suffer a technical problem as Free Practice 2 came to an end.

Toprak Razgatlıoğlu – P3

“Today we had a really good start and then in the second session we focused on working towards the race. We also tried the new tyres delivered by Pirelli for this race, and both sessions were very positive for me. Also tomorrow we will try to improve a little bit on the set-up and decide on the tyres for the race. We will see tomorrow, because of course it is most important for me to perform in the race, not in FP2! Thanks to my team, we are working very hard together and we are quite happy with what we achieved today.”

American star Garrett Gerloff (GRT Yamaha WorldSBK Team) claimed fifth place in the combined classification after posting the third-best time in Free Practice 1, with Scott Redding (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) in sixth; Redding missing out on track time in Free Practice 1 after a technical issue, while he was also sanctioned for not immediately stopping his bike following that issue with a suspension from the first 20 minutes of Free Practice 2.

Scott Redding – P6

“It was definitely not the Friday I was expecting to start the weekend well. Unfortunately, I had that technical problem and then the penalty. I went to the race direction and I apologised for coming into the pits despite the flag. We were not able to complete the program that we planned,  and this is the reason why I  do not feel to be in the best conditions. Tomorrow we will have to improve a lot to be more competitive”.

Alvaro Bautista (Team HRC) had a strong afternoon session to claim seventh place after Friday’s action, although the Spanish rider did crash his Honda machine at Turn 4 but was able to re-mount the bike once the session had ended.

Alvaro Bautista – P7

“With every round, the level of competition seems to increase and the lap times between the different riders and manufactures get closer and closer. We’ve had a positive day, despite a small crash at the very end of the FP2 session. We tried some new Pirelli tyres and I’m happy with the feeling they offer, and that’s good because I think we have even more room for improvement if we are able to make the bike a bit less aggressive, with a set-up that’s a little more balanced. We already made a step forward from one session to the next, improving the bike’s stability and reducing wheeling, but on the other hand the electronics set-up needs more work as we struggled with this in the afternoon. We’ll try to improve that tomorrow using the information we collected today. I feel we are already more competitive than in Estoril, so we’ll see what happens tomorrow. It’s good that we’ll have two qualifying tyres, as we’ll have a better chance of completing a good lap and it will at least reduce the risk of being penalised by any yellow flag“.

Tom Sykes (BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team) was in eighth place after bouncing back from a challenging morning while Axel Bassani (Motocorsa Racing) and Leon Haslam (Team HRC) completed the top ten.

Tom Sykes – P8

“I don’t think we have got the best from our race set up today for the simple reason we did a lot of trial and error, however gained a lot of information for the BMW M 1000 RR. Overall, I am surprised to be where we are considering what we have been doing, so for me I am feeling fairly relaxed about that. Tomorrow is another day; we will have good sit down and assess the changes we made today and hopefully make a good step forward for FP3 in the morning.” 

Leon Haslam – P10

“We improved our lap time slightly at the end of the session but I’m not really satisfied. I felt very confident this morning, after making my fastest lap on what was the tyre’s very last lap, so I was aiming for a much better result this afternoon, which I think was within our reach. Instead, we were unable to make the step we were looking for, as we had a few issues, so I feel we kind of wasted a good opportunity. Now we need to regroup and be ready to make that step tomorrow”.

Lucas Mahias (Kawasaki Puccetti Racing), sporting a striking livery with his Puccetti Kawasaki bike, had a crash in the final corner that cost him plenty of track time with over half an hour to go in the session; Mahias had shown strong pace in the early stages of Free Practice 2 which enabled him to finish 11th overall on Friday.

Chaz Davies (Team GoEleven) was 12th as he goes in search of his 100th WorldSBK podium this weekend; the British rider crashed but re-mounting his Ducati machine at Turn 4 and able to finish ahead of Tito Rabat (Barni Racing Team) with the Spanish rider having a very similar incident almost straight after Davies. BMW runners Michael van der Mark (BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team) and Eugene Laverty (RC Squadra Corse) completed the top 15.

Michael Van der Mark – P14

“It’s not exactly where we want to be. This morning’s FP1 session felt okay, I was feeling good on the bike and the lap times were relatively okay which I was happy about. Then this afternoon we tried to change some settings on the bike, but we struggled a lot with stopping the bike and initial turning, which is quite hard to struggle in areas at this track as you need to stop and you need a lot of turning on the bike. Anyway, It was nice to be back riding here in Misano and as soon as we can get the bike to turn how we want, it will be fun again.”  

Jonas Folger (Bonovo MGM Action) made it three BMW riders in a row with 16th place, just ahead of Kohta Nozane (GRT Yamaha WorldSBK Team) and Andrea Locatelli (Pata Yamaha with BRIXX WorldSBK); the Italian trying to use Razgatlioglu as a reference point in the second session.

WorldSBK Friday Combined Times

WorldSBK Championship Points

WorldSSP

Friday action for the FIM Supersport World Championship came to a conclusion at the Misano World Circuit “Marco Simoncelli” with Manuel Gonzalez (Yamaha ParkinGo Team) continuing where he left off from this morning’s action with the fastest time ahead of the Pirelli Made in Italy Emilia-Romagna Round.

Gonzalez set the pace on Friday morning and improved his time yet again to post a 1’38.473s in the afternoon Free Practice 2 session, topping the timesheets from three-time 2021 race winner Steven Odendaal (Evan Bros. Yamaha WorldSSP Team) as the South African rider looks to get back to winning ways following his retirement from Race 2 at Estoril. Dominique Aegerter (Ten Kate Racing Yamaha), who won last time out at Estoril, finished the day in third place with just over a tenth behind Gonzalez.

Finnish rider Niki Tuuli (MV Agusta Corse Clienti) claimed fourth spot overall for the day despite a crash at Turn 12 in Free Practice 1 that ended his session early, with wildcard Roberto Mercandelli (Team Rosso e Nero) finishing in fifth place after spending most of Free Practice 2 at the top of the timesheets. Federico Caricasulo (GMT94 Yamaha) claimed sixth place for the day despite a crash in the opening session, with the Italian rider able to continue following the office.

He finished less than a tenth clear of teammate Jules Cluzel while it was another rider making their first appearance of 2021, Filippo Fuligni (D34G Racing), who stole some of the headlines after claiming eighth place for the day and second in the morning session; although his copybook was blighted by two crashes in the afternoon, coming at Turn 14 and then Turn 4. Estonian Hannes Soomer (Kallio Racing) was in ninth place for the day with 2019 Champion Randy Krummenacher (EAB Racing Team) in tenth, although the Swiss rider had shown strong pace throughout the afternoon session.

German Philipp Oettl (Kawasaki Puccetti Racing) had a difficult day on Friday at Misano as he suffered from a crash at the left-hander of Turn 2 in FP1 and he could only manage ninth place in FP2, moving him into 11th in the combined standings. Kevin Manfredi (Altogo Racing Team) was the highest placed WorldSSP Challenge competitor in 12th place with Italian Raffaele De Rosa (Orelac Racing VerdNatura) in 13th; De Rosa having a crash at Turn 8 during FP2.

Can Öncü (Kawasaki Puccetti Racing) claimed 14th place across both sessions while Luca Bernardi (CM Racing), who claimed his and San Marino’s first podium last time out in Estoril, was down in 15th and will hope he can move up the order in front of his home fans across the weekend.

Federico Fuligni (VFT Racing) came home in 16th place while One Event rider Luca Ottaviani (RM Racing) was in 17th; the Italian able to re-join the circuit after an FP1 crash at Turn 14. One of the surprises of 2021, Christoffer Bergman (Wojcik Racing Team), found himself down in 18th place with Massimo Roccoli (Promodriver Organization) and Davide Pizzoli (VFT Racing) completing the top 20.

Pawel Szkopek (Yamaha MS Racing) has been declared unfit for the remainder of the weekend following a crash at Turn 9 in Free Practice 1, with the Polish rider being diagnosed with a fracture to his cuboid bone on his right foot. Finnish rider Vertti Takala (Kallio Racing) came off his bike at Turn 4, as did Szkopek’s teammate, Marc Alcoba.

WorldSSP Friday Combined Times

WorldSSP Standings

WorldSSP300

The FIM Supersport 300 World Championship action continued into Friday afternoon with the second practice session for the Pirelli Made in Italy Emilia-Romagna Round at the Misano World Circuit “Marco Simoncelli” with Dutchman Victor Steeman (Freudenberg KTM WorldSSP Team) topping the timesheets after Friday’s two practice sessions.

As usual in WorldSSP300, it was a close-run affair with 19 riders within a second of Steeman’s time after the Dutchman posted a 1’50.088s to go fastest of the 43 riders taking part at Misano. Steeman’s time was just over a tenth clear of Bruno Ieraci (Machado CAME SBK) with the Italian’s session being disrupted toward the end of Free Practice 2 for a technical check on his bike. Adrian Huertas (MTM Kawasaki) was the lead runner for the reigning Teams’ champions with third place, showing strong pace throughout both sessions on Friday.

Tom Booth-Amos (Fusport – RT Motorsports by SKM Kawasaki) had topped the morning session by the barest of margins and continued his strong showing with fourth place in the combined standings, ahead of Huge De Cancellis (Prodina Team WorldSSP300); the two finished first and second in the morning session and fourth and fifth overall. Meikon Kawakami (AD78 Team Brasil by MS Racing) completed the top six after a fourth-place showing in Free Practice 1, six tenths slower than Steeman’s fastest time.

Vincente Perez Selfa (Machado CAME SBK) was in seventh place, a tenth away from Kawakami, with Samuel di Sora (Leader Team Flembbo) in eighth place. Reigning Champion Jeffrey Buis (MTM Kawasaki) was in ninth place with Bahattin Sofuoglu (Biblion Yamaha Motoxracing) in tenth overall, despite losing most of the afternoon’s 30-minute session after he crashed at Turn 16.

Unai Orradre (Yamaha MS Racing) missed out on a top ten finish by just 0.008s as he came home in 11th place, ahead of Dorren Loureiro (Fusport – RT Motorsports by SKM – Kawasaki) and Aussie team-mate Harry Khouri in 12th and 13th place respectively.

Two Champions found themselves outside the top 20 with Marc Garcia (2R Racing) and Ana Carrasco (Kawasaki Provec WorldSSP300) in 22nd and 24th respectively.

WorldSSP300 Friday Combined Times

WorldSSP300 Standings