Michael Ruben Rinaldi (Team Motocorsa Racing) stormed to the top of Friday’s Free Practice 2 session for the MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship session at the Circuito de Jerez – Angel Nieto. The Italian used the SCQ tyre to set his best lap time as he finished 0.150s clear of Championship rivals Nicolo Bulega (Aruba.it Racing - Ducati) and Toprak Razgatlioglu (ROKiT BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team).

Starting in Free Practice 1 on Friday morning, the #21 rider finished just outside of the top 10, in eleventh position. The afternoon demonstrated a more impressive performance however, as the Italian found some outstanding late pace within the last few minutes of track time. He set a 1’39.591s lap time around the Spanish circuit on his sixteenth lap, pipping Bulega to the top spot in the closing stages.

Explaining his Friday after topping the times, Rinaldi said: “It was a good day for us. This morning, I started pretty confidently. We tried the tyres that I won’t use in the race because of the numbers. The feeling wasn’t bad but it wasn’t perfect. I thought this afternoon could be better and it was, so I was pretty happy with my pace with the race tyre. We made some modifications with the electronics side. I feel we can be a little bit more competitive than at other rounds, which is positive. Today is my last Friday as a WorldSBK rider, so it was important to finish on top and I’m pretty glad to do that.”

Looking ahead to Saturday’s Superpole session, Rinaldi will have to find his top form in order to compete with the leading riders. The 29-year-old achieved his best Superpole result earlier in the season at Assen with eighth overall, however he hasn’t been able to achieve a top 10 result since the Autodrom Most round, where he claimed P9. Jerez will be his last attempt to rectify this 2024 record, and after his Free Practice 2 results, his confidence is likely to be a positive motivation for the #21.

Discussing his potential for the Tissot Superpole session on Saturday, Rinaldi stated: “I think I could be a little bit faster, but I found some traffic on the first and then, on the second, the tyre already dropped. This is good because I know I understand that, maybe there’s a 90% chance I won’t use this tyre in the Superpole Race. Also, I can improve with my team to be faster in Superpole tomorrow which is very important.”

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