It had been a tough start to life at Aruba.it Racing – Ducati for Michael Ruben Rinaldi following his switch ahead of the 2021 campaign, but the Misano World Circuit “Marco Simoncelli” was the perfect backdrop for the Italian to rediscover his form at the Pirelli Made In Italy Emilia-Romagna Round, and he duly did so in front of thousands of fans with two victories and a second place in the three races.

Rinaldi had been the one to catch after Friday practice and Saturday morning’s Free Practice 3 session, but a mistake on his qualifying lap left him starting fourth after Tissot Superpole for Race 1 and the Tissot Superpole Race. The Italian did not let this hold him back in either race as he used the pace, he knew he had to take two victories.

Victory in the Tissot Superpole Race meant he started Race 2 from first place and while he was unable to make it a hat-trick of victories, he did secure his third podium of the weekend after a thrilling battle with both Toprak Razgatlioglu (Pata Yamaha with BRIXX WorldSBK) and reigning Champion Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK).

Reacting to his weekend at Misano, where he claimed his first podium and win as a factory Ducati rider, Rinaldi said: “I’m really happy about the weekend. We arrived here on Friday knowing that this track is so important to have a good bike. And we’ve done a great weekend. But today Toprak and his team did a great job. Sincerely, it was hot and easy to make a mistake but he rode so fast. So congratulations to them. I tried my best but today I almost crashed while trying to catch him. So I said to myself: “Okay, a second position after two wins is better than a crash”. But I tried, I tried so hard. So I’m happy with myself about that. But they were just faster than us today.

Rinaldi was keen to not stand still in his quest for more wins, explaining where he feels he can still improve with this Ducati Panigale V4 R: “I improved the confidence with the bike. We are not 100% yet because I miss something and we are not able to fix this kind of problem in the entry of the corner. If you see the race, Toprak is much faster than us there. So we need to improve this area. But for sure we made a good step forward compared to the first races.”

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