After an intense podium battle with Alex Lowes and Axel Bassani during WorldSBK race one in San Juan, it was factory Ducati rider Mich𒈔ael Rinaldi who managed to come away with third.

The Italian rider started ninth🌳 following a mistake in the Superpole session, however, Rinaldi already made his way up to sixth by the end of lap one.💖 

While iꦰt was an impressive opening lap, Rinaldi’s charge through to third then st✨alled for several laps as Pata Yamaha rider Andrea Locatelli proved difficult to overtake. 

But once his fellow Italian b♊egan to struggle around mid-race distance, Rinaldi used the Ducati’s impressive straight-line sp💧eed to get ahead heading into turn seven.

It was a move that freed up🉐 Rinaldi to close in on Lowes and Bassani, something that took just a couple of laps to do, before back-to-back overtakes on lap 15 saw him take third.  

"Actually, I am ha⛎ppy about the race but I’m not so happy about the day because we made a mistake in the Superpole session and started from the third row, so already the race is a fight,"🌼 said Rinaldi after the race.

"I was able to do a good start but on the first lap I didn’t have the pace, so I said ‘ok, breathe, I have the pace and it will come’🌄. 

"After I found my pace I started to pas🌞s some riders. I got to third, but then I just stayed there from that lap until the end, our pace was good."

Rinaldi will once again start from ninthꩵ for today’s ten lap Superpole race, a race he expects to be very ‘aggressive’. 

"Everybody will be aggr🍃essive, but now, I think the level is so high, so everyone is clean and fighting. I h🅷ope we can enjoy and start from a better position."