Michael Ruben Rinaldi (Aruba.it Racing – Junior Team) arrived at MotorLand Aragon for the third Round of the MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship with the main intention of learning, but after promising performances on Friday and Saturday last year’s STK1000 champion has shown that he is also capable of getting results right off the bat on his Ducati Panigale R. Eighth on the grid and after Race 1, the Italian was the second best independent of the day and showed that he is one to watch at the rest for the European season of WorldSBK.

The Italian was obviously pleased at the beginning of his WorldSBK career. “Yeah, I’m really happy of course, my team and I, for us it’s a new experience, we come from the STK1000 and less laps, so we made some experience”, confirms Rinaldi. “Of course we’re happy with eighth place, I fought with Tom (Sykes), Lowes and van der Mark, and this is very important for me. Unfortunately, in the final laps I destroyed my tires – I have no experience and pushed 100% all race, but for tomorrow we will try to improve to make a better result, and see what happens”.

Few riders get the chance to start from the second row in their debut Round, but thanks to his eighth-place finish Rinaldi will be able to do just that tomorrow, starting from fifth on the grid. With one race under his belt, the Italian has been able to start judging where improvements need to be made: “I need to improve on the exit of the corners, because I put a lot of gas at the maximum angle, and this is the worst for the tyre. Tomorrow I will try with my riding style, and my team with the setup will help me, and we’ll see to improve everything.”

Watch as Rinaldi and Aruba.it Racing – Junior Team gain experience in tomorrow’s Race Two, live on WorldSBK VideoPass.