A tricky weekend concluded for Barni Racing Team at Portimao

The Barni Racing Team got of the Portuguese round of MOTUL FIM World Superbike Championship with a double result outside the top 10. At the Autodromo Internacional do Algarve in Portimao, Portugal, Michael Rinaldi - riding the Ducati Panigale V4 R - took the eleventh position in the Superpole Race and a twelfth place in race 2.

After the weekend, characterized by hot temperatures (around 30 °C of the air) that led the asphalt to reach a temperature close to 50 °C, the 23-year-old from Romagna came back home with 10 point more in the overall Championship, where he remains eleventh, with 107 points.

Superpole Race 

Started from the eleventh spot Rinaldi lose ground in the first lap but he started soon the recovery overtaking Reiterberger and Mercado. With a pace under the 1’43'' he gave his all till the last part of the stage trying to join Torres and Melandri in the battle for the eleventh place. Posting his best lap 1’42.7 at the penultimate lap the Barni Racing Team rider was able to overtake both of them sealing the eleventh position. A great race but not enough to score points and gain positions in the starting grid of race 2. 

Race 2 

On long distance the #21 was not able to maintain the same pace of the Sprint Race. Battling with Cortese, Torres and Davies for tenth place Rinaldi was moved down 13th, than he sat the pace in front of Reiterberger. The gap between Rinaldi and Cortese slowly expanded and the Barni Racing Team rider gain the twelfth position only over Davies. With four more points - ten in all in this weekend - Rinaldi maintains the eleventh position in the overall Championship standings, but he lose some points from Cortese and saw Torres only one point behind him in the battle for the tenth place in the Championship.

Marco Barnabò - Team principal

"As I said yesterday we expected something more from the weekend because we tested here and times were better. Despite we have found almost the same temperatures the track conditions were different and this didn’t let us to be competitive. The team worked hard all the weekend close to the rider and I want to thank all of them because they were unstoppable and they deserve better results".

Michael Ruben Rinaldi #21 Superpole Race: P11 - Race 2: P21

"We went out from the weekend with lots of informations but we are still in trouble trying to set the bike in different conditions. I’m happy about the sprint race when I was able to made good laps and good times. Unfortunately from the Superpole Race to Race 2 the track was very different and this didn’t let me to push hard to recover some positions from the starting point. Usually the two Sunday’s race are better for us in term of result, but this time I wasn’t able to improve my position in the race. Our guys worked very well and I really would like to give them better results".