Mike Jones, starting from the front row, fought for a podium before finishing 6th at Magny Cours

Race winner Guarnoni pushes Jones backs to sixth in championship standings

Mike Jones raced the Aruba.it Racing Ducati at Magny Cours (France) for the penultimate round of the European Superstock 1000 Championship last weekend.

In mixed weather conditions throughout the weekend, the team worked hard with both riders, though it didn’t score the expected results.

Mike Jones, starting from the front row after a strong QP on a track he didn’t know, fought for the podium but faced some difficulties in the final phases of the race and finished in 6th position.

Teammate Micheal Ruben Rinaldi, hindered by some technical issues during QP, started from the third row but couldn’t mount a comeback and finished in 10th position. The Italian still leads the championship by 8 points with one race to go.

After 8 races, Rinaldi and Jones are respectively first (128 points) and sixth (72 points) in the championship.

The Aruba.it Racing – Junior team will be back at Jerez de la Frontera (Spain) for the last round of the season, scheduled for October 20-22.

Mike Jones (Aruba.it Racing – Junior Team #57) – 6th

“We made a great start from the front row and took the lead. I was trying to run a consistent race, staying within reach of the front, but just before half-way I started to struggle with rear grip and dropped the pace a bit. Finishing sixth is nonetheless a good result when you put it into perspective: I never rode on this track before, and racing in such a competitive field is not easy. Now we’ll go to Jerez, a track that I like and know much better. We learned a lot from this weekend and we’ll take into the last round. I’m confident about our chances to finish with our best result of the year.”

Mike Jones - Magny Cours — Mike Jones – Magny Cours

Michael Ruben Rinaldi (Aruba.it Racing – Junior Team #12) – 10th

“Unfortunately, we had another difficult weekend. It’s frustrating when you don’t express your potential, but once again we couldn’t find the best feeling with the bike despite the hard work we put in. Looking at the bright side, we’ll get to Jerez with an 8-point advantage. We’ll have to fight for the title until the very end, but so will our rivals. I gave my all throughout the season, and I’ll keep doing it until the last checkered flag.”

Piero Guidi, Team Manager

“Honestly we expected more from this round. Mike found a good feeling with the Panigale R since Saturday, but struggled more than expected during the race. Michael faced some small technical issues hindered the work on the setup, and the race results show it. We’ll multiply our efforts for the last race, where we hope to fight against all our rivals on track.”