At the Misano World Circuit “Marco Simoncelli” on Saturday it was Michael Rinaldi (Aruba.it Racing - Junior Team) who topped the timesheet in the qualifying session for the Superstock 1000 European Championship, giving him his fourth pole position of 2017. The Italian will be joined on the front row by his compatriots Roberto Tamburini (PATA Yamaha Official STK 1000 Team) and Marco Faccani (Althea BMW Racing Team).

Rinaldi is a Rimini native and he put all his local knowledge to good use to produce a 1’37.237s lap for pole. Tamburini trailed him by just +0.068s for second, whilst Faccani was +0.095s off P1 in third place.

At the #RiminiWorldSBK round another Italian Alessandro Andreozzi (Speed Action by Andreozzi R.C.) qualified fourth to head row two. He will be joined on the second row by the top non-Italian qualifier, Australian Mike Jones (Aruba.it Racing - Junior Team) in fifth. Frenchman Florian Marino (Pata Yamaha Official STK1000 Team), meanwhile, will line up in sixth place.

The third row will feature another Italian - Luca Vitali (Nuova M2 Racing) – along with Turkey’s Toprak Razgatlioglu (Kawasaki Puccetti Racing) and France’s Jeremy Guarnoni (Pedercini Racing). Heading row four Federico Sandi (Berclaz Racing Team) made it six Italians in the top ten.

Sunday’s 15-lap Superstock 1000 race at the Pirelli Riviera Di Rimini Round will start at 3.15pm local time.