News

Round 8 of the eni FIM Superbike World Championship began today with the two opening free practice sessions that, combined with the third one scheduled for tomorrow at 9:45am local time (GMT+2) will decide the twenty riders qualifying for the Tissot-Superpole of the PATA Riviera di Rimini Round. Here is what some of the protagonists of today's action had to say during this afternoon's official press conference.

Max Biaggi (Aprilia Racing Team) 1^st: "It's a great pleasure to be back. I like Misano a lot and today has been very good. I've arrived here with the test team from the factory. They are a bit nervous as they have never worked directly inside the paddock, but it's a great experience for them and for me. I never expected this but after today's sessions for sure I'm not going to be happy to finish 8th on Sunday. It's the cherry on the cake and I'm thankful to Aprilia."

Davide Giugliano (Aruba.it Racing– Ducati Superbike Team) 2^nd: "I had a very big crash today in Free Practice 1 and then a small fall in FP2 but I'm OK to ride. I don't have a great feeling with the bike right now so we have to try and improve our settings for tomorrow. It was nice to swap the top time with Max who like me is a Roman Warrior. "

Chaz Davies (Aruba.it Racing– Ducati Superbike Team) 3^rd: "It's been a good start for us and a solid Friday. The circuit is a lot smoother than it was, which is good for us. We're currently trying to fix some issues we had in Portimao and working mostly on the front end of the Panigale R."

Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki Racing team) 5^th: "We're quietly going about our business and trying to sharpen up our bike. They've done a great job with the asphalt here, all the old bumps are gone so it feels nice. Gearing is something we need to improve one as there are a lot of slow-speed corners here in Misano, so we'll look to try and do something about it tomorrow."

Markus Reiterberger (Van Zon Remeha BMW) 12^th: "We were really happy with Free Practice 1 in fourth place but we struggled in the second session with a bad feeling at the front of our BMW S 1000 RR machine. We will try and make some improvements for tomorrow. On the quick lap attempt before crashing this afternoon I was setting the fastest time through sector one but then made a mistake and had to abort the lap. I then went for another one and but Turn 2 I tucked the front."