From lying in the gravel on Sunday at Donington Park and being stretchered into an ambulance, to returning home, hitting the track and snatching top spot. It’s been an eventful fortnight for Michael Ruben Rinaldi (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati), not that you’d have guessed it from an electric FP2 pace at Imola. The Prometeon Italian Round welcomes the MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship back to the iconic Autodromo Internazionale Enzo e Dino Ferrari di Imola, with the circuit nestled in a park setting, surrounded by greenery, apartment balconies and the true Italian passion for motorsport in this part of the country.

The aforementioned Italian passion will be upscaled for Saturday, not just by the fact that home-hero Rinaldi is on top going into the first of two race days, but by the fact that Ducati look like they’re in contention for their first victory at the historic venue since 2017. However, whilst smart money would’ve had a fully fit and Championship-leading Alvaro Bautista (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) as the favourite, he struggled to eighth, whilst Rinaldi rocketed to P1. Three red flags interrupted the second session of the day but the 27-year-old was right on the pace at the end with a time attack on used tyres seeing him go a tenth and a half clear out front and more than half a second ahead of his teammate.

“I FELT STRANGE WITH THE BIKE… THE FEELING IS GETTING BETTER” – a day of two halves for #21

Talking about his return to action following an injury that originally left him as a question mark for the event, Rinaldi spoke of something of an alien feeling first thing in the morning on Panigale V4 R: “This morning, I felt strange with the bike. After the crash at Donington Park, I spent almost one week in bed. I trained a bit but only in the pool, to try and not lose too much energy. But this morning, on the bike, the effort I had to make was pretty demanding. I was able to ride pretty quick, even if the feeling wasn’t good.

“We worked to improve the bike for this afternoon and actually, it worked. I was able to lap quickly but every time there was a red flag, so it looked like I was just eighth, eighth and eighth! However, my potential was much more and at the end, we kept pushing with the used tyre; I didn’t put a new tyre. I was quite impressed with the time I was able to do. I had ten laps on the tyre and I did the best lap at the end. The feeling is getting better and better and I am quite happy about my riding on the bike.”

Talking about how he physically feels after the first day, Rinaldi didn’t shy away from being tired and kept his hopes for Saturday coy: “I feel quite tired as I didn’t train in a proper way because of the crash at Donington, but FP2 was much better. So, I think that tomorrow I’ll have to take pills for the pain in my ankle because today, I took nothing, just to understand where I was with the pain. At the moment, I feel pretty bad with the ankle and it’s a foot I use a lot because I use the rear brake. I need to be without pain. I can do it for many laps without the pain but after one day, I don’t feel that good. I don’t want to make plans, I just want to try and find the happiness with my bike again.”

Assessing the new rev limit restrictions for Ducati, Rinaldi said that he could feel the difference, saying: “The first time they cut us 250rpm, I didn’t feel the same but today, I felt a big difference. Especially, when I change gear in fourth, fifth and sixth. The bike stays the same, it doesn’t pull. I asked the engineers why and they replied, saying: ‘the bike should work really good in the torque range’. So, there is one range that the bike works good and if you stay there, OK it’s not bad. When you go down there, it’s like there’s more than just 250rpm. So, they can’t do anything but we’re lucky here at Imola, because the straights are with a bit of leaning so if I put sixth gear and stay straight, the bike goes low with the RPM, but if I do a trick and go with lean angle, the drop of the RPM is not that big! We can work with it here, but we have to do everything we can. This time, we really feel the difference.”

“THE FEELING ISN’T AS GOOD… NO SUPER-BIG PROBLEM WITH THE RPM” – Bautista on Day 1

On the other side of the box, Alvaro Bautista’s return to Imola – the only circuit that the Spaniard has yet to win at in WorldSBK – wasn’t quite as he’d have ideally wanted. The reigning World Champion finished eighth overall on the combined times and didn’t improve his lap time from morning to afternoon. Nevertheless, Bautista explained his Friday and isn’t worried for the upcoming races.

“Today was just about rediscovering the circuit, as I have only raced once here in 2019,” began the Championship leader, who was just 0.002s ahead of Danilo Petrucci (Barni Spark Racing Team) after the end of track action on Friday. "We need to find the reference and get a base. In the morning, we used the harder compound on the front and there wasn’t a big problem but the grip wasn’t fantastic. Also, it moved a lot, maybe because of the track or because we’re not in our best setup.

“In the afternoon, I used the SC1 front and I felt much better. We made some changes on the bike to improve the feeling, but the track was difficult for the heat. The feeling isn’t as good as other tracks; we need to make more changes for tomorrow. Especially as it felt like the bike is too low on the rear and I don’t have direction. It moves a lot and it seems like the suspension doesn’t work very well. Anyway, I am happy with the pace because at the end, it’s very important at this track. Maybe we aren’t as strong but with the pace, we are good. Let’s see if we can improve the feeling when riding the bike tomorrow.”

Asked whether he felt any difference with 250rpm less than at the previous round, Bautista commented: “In the end, it’s 500rpm less from the beginning of the season, so it feels like I have to shift a bit before. The limiter arrives a bit sooner but I don’t think it has been our main problem today. We can improve the setup of the bike a lot, so let’s try tomorrow to see if we can improve my feeling, so no super-big problem with the rpm.”

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