Rinaldi salvages San Juan race one podium for Ducati

After an intense podium battle with Alex Lowes and Axel Bassani during WorldSBK race one in San Juan, it was factory Ducati rider Michael Rinaldi who managed to come away with third.

The Italian rider started ninth following a mistake in the Superpole session, however, Rinaldi already made his way up to sixth by the end of lap one. 

While it was an impressive opening lap, Rinaldi’s charge through to third then stalled for several laps as Pata Yamaha rider Andrea Locatelli proved difficult to overtake. 

But once his fellow Italian began to struggle around mid-race distance, Rinaldi used the Ducati’s impressive straight-line speed to get ahead heading into turn seven.

It was a move that freed up Rinaldi to close in on Lowes and Bassani, something that took just a couple of laps to do, before back-to-back overtakes on lap 15 saw him take third.  

"Actually, I am happy about the race but I’m not so happy about the day because we made a mistake in the Superpole session and started from the third row, so already the race is a fight," said Rinaldi after the race.

"I was able to do a good start but on the first lap I didn’t have the pace, so I said ‘ok, breathe, I have the pace and it will come’. 

"After I found my pace I started to pass some riders. I got to third, but then I just stayed there from that lap until the end, our pace was good."

Rinaldi will once again start from ninth for today’s ten lap Superpole race, a race he expects to be very ‘aggressive’. 

"Everybody will be aggressive, but now, I think the level is so high, so everyone is clean and fighting. I hope we can enjoy and start from a better position."