In Sunday’s final race of the Superstock 1000 European Championship season former WorldSBK rider Markus Reiterberger (Van Zon Remeha BMW) took an impressive win from pole, crossing the line five seconds clear at the front, with Michael Rinaldi (Aruba.it Racing – Junior Team) securing the title by finishing sixth. Illia Mykhalchyk (TripleM Racing) and Toprak Razgatlioglu (Kawasaki Puccetti Racing) completed the podium in second and third places respectively.
There was drama on the first lap at turn 2 as title contender Florian Marino (Pata Yamaha Official STK1000 Team) crashed with Florian Alt (Team Yamaha MGM), in an incident which also involved Alejandro Medina Mayo (Cardoso School Racing). Medina was given a ride through for his part in that early clash which was to be so costly for Marino’s title aspirations, as the Frenchman ultimately finished in 20th place.
That left Rinaldi and Razgatlioglu to fight out the title between them, with the pair riding together for several laps behind the front runners. There was a big scare for Rinaldi as he was almost hit by Jeremy Guarnoni (Pedercini Racing) with four laps to go.
Guarnoni was penalized for the incident but Rinaldi survived the scare and brought it home in sixth place, which was enough to give him the title, despite Razgatlioglu finishing on the podium behind the rampant Reiterberger and second placed Mykhalchyk.
Mike Jones (Aruba.it Racing – Junior Team) lost out on third place to Razgatlioglu by less than half a second, whilst Roberto Tamburini (PATA Yamaha Official STK 1000 Team) completed the top five.
Behind Rinaldi, three fellow Italian riders Federico Sandi (Berclaz Racing Team), Marco Faccani (Althea BMW Racing Team) and Andrea Mantovani (Nuova M2 Racing), along with Chile’s Maximilian Scheib (Nuova M2 Racing), completed the top ten.
In the European Supersport, which is held in the context of the World series, Rob Hartog won on his Kawasaki, snatching the eight position in the World standing. Second position for Alex Zaccone on MV Agusta, ahead of Hannes Soomer, on Honda CBR600RR. Soomer, from Estonia (photo 2), is the winner of the European series.
