Lorenzo Zanetti: the revelation of Brno

After a full five seasons spent racing in 125GP, this year Italian Lorenzo Zanetti has switched to four-strokes. He has been a regular competitor in the CIV Italian domestic series' Superstock 600 category on a Yamaha R6 and with two races still to go he is in with a chance of fighting for the title.

At Brno however Zanetti almost pulled off a true masterstroke: on his official debut aboard a Superstock 1000 machine, a Ducati 1098 of the SS Lazio Motociclismo team run by Andrea Petricca, Lorenzo was immediately on the pace in qualifying and on Sunday he amazed everyone by fighting for the win with the man who is dominating the category this year, Ayrton Badovini.

The 22 year-old Italian from Brescia, who practices motocross and snowboard in his free time, has a clean and efficient riding style and looks to have all the right cards to finish the Superstock 1000 season at the top on his sky-blue and white Ducati 1098 machine.

"I didn't expect to go so well so soon, even though I know what I'm capable of, but I was sure I could get a good result," declared Zanetti. "Together with the guys in the team we did a good job, they put me in the best possible condition to race and I'd like to thank Andrea for giving me this opportunity. The team is really competitive".

Despite this result Zanetti said that he is still not able to get the best out of a Superstock 1000 machine but as a former two-stroke rider he will certainly have time to get to grips with it until the end of the season. "It's strange but the Ducati that I raced at Brno is more similar to a GP bike than a Yamaha R6 and for this reason I immediately found myself at ease with it. At the next rounds I will be racing on tracks I've never seen before, as always I'll be going there to win but it'll be tough so getting into the top 5 will be a great result".