The excellent 2017 season of Michael Rinaldi (Aruba.it Racing – Junior Team) continued at his home race as the Italian took a dominant 2.3s victory at Imola in the Superstock 1000 European Championship, with Roberto Tamburini (PATA Yamaha Official STK 1000 Team) and Toprak Razgatlioglu (Kawasaki Puccetti Racing) also on the podium.
Controlling a restarted race from pole position on the grid, Rinaldi was unaffected by two aborted race starts – which were cut short by red flags – as he held his nerve to strengthen his position at the head of the standings.
After his win at Aragon and second place at Assen Rinaldi outpaced his rivals over the 9 lap sprint, with Tamburini and Razgatlioglu unable to catch him.
Turkish rider Razgatlioglu was the only non-Italian in a top six which also featured Federico Sandi (Berclaz Racing Team), Marco Faccani (Althea BMW Racing Team) and Matteo Ferrari (DMR Racing Team).
Michael Rinaldi (Aruba.it Racing – Junior Team)The top ten also featured Sebastien Suchet (Berclaz Racing Team), Mike Jones (Aruba.it Racing – Junior Team), Alex Schacht (EAB Schacht Racing Team) and Federico Sanchioni (Clasitaly).
There were crashes for Maximillian Schieb (Nuova M2 Racing), Jeremy Guarnoni (Pedercini Racing), Florian Marino (Pata Yamaha Official STK1000 Team), Illia Mykhalchyk (TripleM Racing), Kevin Manfredi (DDM by BWG-Bike &Motor RT-Grimaldi) and Toni Fisterbusch (Agro On-Benjan-Kawasaki) on an incident packed day.
The first running of the race was cut short after a red flag following a crash for Luca Marconi (TheBlackSheep Team) and Jones at turn 3. Then after the race was restarted separate incidents for Alessandro Nocco (DDM by BWG_Bike & Motor RT_Grimaldi) and Marc Moser (TripleM Racing) again at turn 3 saw the red flag come out once more. Eventually the riders got away a third time and were able finally able to complete the race.
The Superstock 1000 European Championship grid will gather again for more action next time out at Donington in two weeks’ time, over the 26th-28th May weekend.
Full results on FIM Europe website: http://www.fim-europe.eu/events/342
