Two victories for Alvaro Bautista and two star-studded races for Michael Rinaldi: these were the highlights of the Aruba.it Racing – Ducati Team’s extraordinary Sunday. The Pirelli Aragon Round, the first round of the 2022 WorldSBK season, ends with the Spanish rider topping the Superbike World Championship standings.
- Superpole Race
P1 – Alvaro Bautista dominates the race right from the start and finishes first, 5 seconds ahead of Rea (Kawasaki).
P4 – Michael Rinaldi battles with Razgatliogliu (Yamaha) and Rea (Kawasaki). The fight is intense and the Italian rider pushes his way into the second position. At the last corner, however, he is overtaken by Razgatlioglu and he eventually settles for fourth place, just 59 thousandths from the podium.
- Race -2
P1 – Alvaro Bautista gets off a good start, battling with Rea (Kawasaki) on the first lap and then pushing hard to create the gap that allows him to end the race with more than 4 seconds of advantage.
P4 – Since the start, Michael Rinaldi is glued to the podium group. On lap 5 the Italian rider takes the second position, trying to stay with his teammate. From the middle of the race, however, the rear grip drops visibly, not allowing him to conquer a potential podium.
Alvaro Bautista (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati #19)
“I’m really happy. It’s been a very positive weekend, we’ve obtained important results but the crucial thing was to regain confidence with positive feelings: with the bike, with the team, with my fans. I was satisfied yesterday for the second place too, but I felt that something was missing. Since the warm-up the feeling was very good and so I tried to push harder. It was a very good start of the season. I can’t wait to be in Assen”.
Michael Rinaldi (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati #21)
“I close this weekend with mixed emotions. I’m very satisfied with the work we’ve done especially because in every race we’ve been in a position to easily fight for the podium. On the other hand, however, it is clear that something was missing. The balance is certainly positive, but we will have to work to fix those details that can allow us to be even more competitive”.
- WorldSSP
The Aragon Sunday will be long remembered by the Aruba.it Racing WSSP team as Nicolò Bulega took the Ducati Panigale V2‘s first podium in the WorldSSP championship.
After a difficult start, the Italian rider made up position after position to attack Van Straalen (Yamaha) at the last corner and finish the race with team celebrations at the park ferme.
Nicolò Bulega (Aruba.it Racing WSSP #11)
“I am very happy with this result. It’s the first podium for me and for the Panigale V2 in the World Supersport Championship. I want to thank the team for the work done so far. We started practically from scratch, without data, without references, with a bike with no experience in this category. Expectations remain high and we must continue to work with this focus”.
