Isaac Vinales to race for Team Pedercini at Estoril WorldSBK
Vinales, who was part of the provisional 24-rider WorldSBK entry list in January, lost his Motoxracing Yamaha seat to Roberto Tamburini shortly before the season-opener at Aragon.
Cousin of MotoGP rider Maverick Vinales, Isaac will be aboard familiar machinery as he will ride a Kawasaki ZX-10RR.
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But with no prior testing ahead of next weekend’s Portuguese round, Vinales will need to find his feet quickly as WorldSBK has once again been ultra competitive in 2022.
Vinales raced for Verdnatura Kawasaki in 2021, securing a best finish of ninth at the final race of the year in Mandalika, his only top ten result of the season.
Initial rumours suggested Vinales would be retained by the team, however, his seat went to Czech youngster Oliver Konig who made the switch directly from WorldSSP300.
After Team Pedericini decided to end its partnership with Belgian rider Loris Cresson due to financial agreements not being fulfilled, Vinales is now the third rider to be racing for Lucio Pedercini this season.
Leon Haslam rode for the Italian-based team in Assen, and remains on course to compete in another four wildcard rounds that are part of a different agreement.
Haslam also secured the team’s first points of the season after Cresson endured another very difficult weekend in Aragon, something that happened all-too often in his rookie campaign (2021).
While Haslam has been earmarked as a rider who could fill in for more than just the four allocated wildcard rounds - will also depend on his BSB schedule - there remains no indication on whether the one-bike outfit will secure a full-time rider going forward.
