2023-10-01 16:53:01
Portimão was Michael Rinaldi’s penultimate race weekend as a Ducati factory rider, but the Italian was unable to build on the strong results from Aragón, where he achieved a win, two podiums and another top-five finish.
The 27-year-old was unlucky twice on Saturday, which also had an impact on Sunday. “The weekend as a whole was ruined for me in Superpole,” said Rinaldi angrily in an interview with SPEEDWEEK.com. “I had the second best time, but my time was canceled because of yellow flags. That was bitter because when Vierge crashed in turn 14, I was only in turn 2. And on the lap following that, Lowes crashed in turn 1 and the yellow flags were waving once more. I still had my sights set on the podium for the first run and had already gained a few positions when I unfortunately had a technical problem.”
After failing in the first race, Rinaldi took sixth place in the Superpole race and followed up with a podium finish in third in the second race. At times it even looked as if he might close the gap to his teammate Álvaro Bautista and Toprak Razgatlioglu (Yamaha), who fought an epic duel for victory. “It’s not possible to win from 13th place on the grid in the Superpole race, even if you have the pace for it. “I was happy with sixth place because it meant a much better starting position for the second race,” said the Ducati rider. «When I made it to third place, I was 1.5 seconds behind Álvaro and Toprak, who were riding a similar pace to me. I kept pushing, also because Locatelli and Gerloff were putting pressure behind me.”
Ducati did not impose a team order. «I knew that if I came second and Toprak third, that Álvaro had won the world championship. If I had been in a situation where I might have overtaken him, I would have done so,” said Rinaldi. “But they also told me that I might win. Álvaro is so many points ahead of Toprak Razgatlioglu that that wouldn’t have been a problem.”
At the final in Jerez, Rinaldi has a realistic chance of finishing fifth in the World Cup. He is only eleven points behind his intimate enemy Axel Bassani from the Ducati Team Motocorsa.
Result Superbike World Championship Portimao, Race 2: Pos Driver Motorcycle Diff 1. Alvaro Bautista (E) Ducati 2. Toprak Razgatlioglu (TR) Yamaha + 0.126 sec 3. Michael Rinaldi (I) Ducati + 1.764 4. Garrett Gerloff (USA) BMW + 2,864 5. Andrea Locatelli (I) Yamaha + 6,373 6. Danilo Petrucci (I) Ducati + 9,305 7. Iker Lecuona (E) Honda + 10,154 8. Dominique Aegerter (CH) Yamaha + 10,262 9. Philipp Öttl (D) Ducati + 12,253 10. Jonathan Rea (GB) Kawasaki + 19,155 11. Michael vd Mark (NL) BMW + 20,468 12. Axel Bassani (I) Ducati + 20,970 13. Lorenzo Baldassarri (I) Yamaha + 23,800 14. Scott Redding (GB) BMW + 29,871 15. Xavier Vierge (E) Honda + 41,408 16. Tito Rabat (E) Kawasaki + 42,685 17. Isaac Vinales (E) Kawasaki + 42,967 18. Bradley Ray (GB) Yamaha + 51,507 19. Gabriele Ruiu (I) BMW + 51,529 – Remy Gardner (AUS) Yamaha – Loris Baz (F) BMW – Hafizh Syahrin (MAL) Honda Result Superbike World Championship Portimao, Superpole Race: Pos Driver Motorcycle Diff 1. Alvaro Bautista (E) Ducati 2. Toprak Razgatlioglu (TR) Yamaha + 0.142 sec 3. Andrea Locatelli (I) Yamaha + 4.024 4. Remy Gardner (AUS) Yamaha + 6.984 5. Iker Lecuona (E) Honda + 7.236 6. Michael Rinaldi (I) Ducati + 7.549 7. Michael vd Mark (NL) BMW + 8,387 8. Garrett Gerloff (USA) BMW + 9,898 9. Xavier Vierge (E) Honda + 11,003 10. Philipp Öttl (D) Ducati + 11,230 11. Axel Bassani (I) Ducati + 11,362 12. Loris Baz (F) BMW + 12,751 13. Scott Redding (GB) BMW + 12,806 14. Dominique Aegerter (CH) Yamaha + 13,053 15. Danilo Petrucci (I) Ducati + 13,609 16. Lorenzo Baldassarri (I) Yamaha + 18,858 17. Bradley Ray (GB) Yamaha + 21,305 18. Tito Rabat (E) Kawasaki + 21,363 19. Hafizh Syahrin (MAL) Honda + 23,818 20. Isaac Vinales (E) Kawasaki + 24,348 21. Gabriele Ruiu (I) BMW + 31,299 – Alex Lowes (GB) Kawasaki – Jonathan Rea (GB) Kawasaki – Oliver König (CZ) Kawasaki Result Superbike World Championship Portimao, Race 1: Pos Driver Motorcycle Diff 1. Alvaro Bautista (E) Ducati 2. Toprak Razgatlioglu (TR) Yamaha + 2,098 sec 3. Jonathan Rea (GB) Kawasaki + 6,790 4. Garrett Gerloff (USA) BMW + 12,093 5. Alex Lowes (GB) Kawasaki + 13,148 6. Remy Gardner (AUS) Yamaha + 13,714 7. Michael vd Mark (NL) BMW + 14,171 8. Iker Lecuona (E) Honda + 15,442 9. Andrea Locatelli (I) Yamaha + 17,792 10. Xavier Vierge (E) Honda + 21,198 11. Philipp Öttl (D) Ducati + 21,723 12. Danilo Petrucci (I) Ducati + 21,910 13. Axel Bassani (I) Ducati + 23,381 14. Dominique Aegerter (CH) Yamaha + 23,457 15. Scott Redding (GB) BMW + 29,872 16. Lorenzo Baldassarri (I) Yamaha + 34,162 17. Bradley Ray (GB) Yamaha + 36.702 18. Loris Baz (F) BMW + 40.829 19. Tito Rabat (E) Kawasaki + 46.446 20. Hafizh Syahrin (MAL) Honda + 52.185 21. Eric Granado (BR) Honda + 53.598 22. Gabriele Ruiu (I) BMW + 53,916 23. Oliver König (CZ) Kawasaki + > 1 min – Michael Rinaldi (I) Ducati – Isaac Vinales (E) Kawasaki Superbike World Championship 2023: Standings following 33 of 36 races Pos Driver Motorcycle Points 1. Alvaro Bautista (E) Ducati 566 2. Toprak Razgatlioglu (TR) Yamaha 506 3. Jonathan Rea (GB) Kawasaki 350 4. Andrea Locatelli (I) Yamaha 300 5. Axel Bassani (I) Ducati 244 6. Michael Rinaldi (I) Ducati 233 7. Danilo Petrucci (I) Ducati 205 8. Alex Lowes (GB) Kawasaki 140 8. Xavier Vierge (E) Honda 140 10. Remy Gardner (AUS) Yamaha 139 11. Dominique Aegerter (CH) Yamaha 138 12. Iker Lecuona (E) Honda 136 13. Garrett Gerloff (USA) BMW 135 14. Scott Redding (GB) BMW 118 15. Philipp Öttl (D) Ducati 102 16. Loris Baz (F) BMW 57 17. Michael vd Mark (NL) BMW 48 18. Bradley Ray (GB) Yamaha 19 19. Lorenzo Baldassarri (I) Yamaha 15 20. Tom Sykes (GB) Kawa/BMW 11 21. Hafizh Syahrin (MAL) Honda 10 22. Leon Haslam(GB) BMW 2 23. Ivo Lopes (PT ) BMW 1 23. Isaac Vinales (E) Kawasaki 1 24. Tito Rabat (E) Kawasaki 1 24. Hannes Soomer (EST) Honda 1 24. Florian Marino (F) Kawasaki 1
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