Even if ahead of the round his future was thrown into the spotlight, Michael Ruben Rinaldi (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) was the best rider come the afternoon heat and was second in the overall classification for Friday in France. The Pirelli French Round at the Circuit de Nevers Magny-Cours always provides a mixed-up order but it’s a venue that has seen Rinaldi excel at in the past. Can he replicate his victory-contending ride of 12 months ago?
It was a steady start to the weekend for Rinaldi, who was P7 and second Ducati – directly behind teammate Alvaro Bautista – in FP1, however in the afternoon, he was right at the front of the field. 21 laps were set in heat, bringing his total to 37 for the day and he confirmed that he had experimented with a new setup on his Ducati Panigale V4 R, something previously trialled at the recent Aragon test. As the chequered flag was waved, he was just 0.073s slower than Jonathan Rea’s (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK) fastest lap time set in the morning and had a margin of just 0.008s over fellow Friday revelation Garrett Gerloff (Bonovo Action BMW).
Debriefing his Friday track time, Rinaldi said: “It’s been a good Friday for us as we were able to try something that we tried during the test. It’s really hot for Magny-Cours so it’s like a different track; I was able to try different tyres and push really hard to be on top in the afternoon. We have to work to improve because the top three will always be there in the race. At the moment, we’re not the favourite at all, but we can be happy about this positive first day. It’s difficult to say who the favourite will be but I checked the lap times really quickly; I think Toprak and Jonny have the best pace right now, but we know that Alvaro on Saturday afternoon and Sunday will always be there.
“We tried a different setup to improve in the braking zone and this morning, it wasn’t 100% but in the afternoon we improved, so I was able to be fast. I still had to put perhaps too much energy to ride this kind of bike so we’re still trying to find the best solution to be smooth and fast in the same way. We’ve chosen the tyres after FP2, but I won’t tell you yet! I’ll do my best to try and jump on the podium and we’ll see what we can do to try and improve our race pace.”
Rinaldi’s form at the Magny-Cours circuit has been mixed but also successful, as in 14 WorldSBK races at the track, he achieved just one podium, albeit last year when he was in P2 and top Ducati. A best Superpole performance dates back to 2019, whilst he completed the gentlemen’s set of win, pole and the fastest lap in Superstock 600 in 2015, leading all the laps too.
He’ll need some Magny-Cours magic this weekend to, to put himself in the shop window for 2024; Rinaldi confirmed on Thursday that he is 99.9% certain to be on the WorldSBK grid but he needs to assess his options. This comes after he was announced as departing the Aruba.it Racing – Ducati outfit on Tuesday ahead of the round, being replaced by World Supersport Champion-elect Nicolo Bulega, being promoted up to WorldSBK.
Enjoy all action this weekend LIVE with the WorldSBK VideoPass, now 50% off!
Source: WorldSBK.com