Rinaldi: We only had positive feelings in race two, we need to fix that

Michael Rinaldi’s difficult run of WorldSBK results since claiming back-to-back victories at Misano continued at the inaugural Navarra round. 

Rinaldi finished seventh in race two, however, this proceeded a tenth in race one and 13th in the Superpole race. 

The Italian was regularly the fourth fastest Ducati over the course of all three days behind Scott Redding, Chaz Davies and Axel Bassani. 

Yet more surprising when it comes to the lack of speed from Rinaldi, is the fact team-mate Redding has scored the most points, while also having the joint most wins with Toprak Razgatlioglu since Assen - showing the bike is considerably better than the results Rinaldi is achieving. 

"It was a difficult three days here in Navarra. Sincerely, we only had positive feelings in race two," said Rinaldi. 

"It’s too late to get a great result because we changed many things on the bike and it only worked in the last race. 

"If you look at the times, if we start at the front, we could arrive there but maybe not the podium. 

"We need to fix that and understand why we don’t get the feeling sometimes and we lose so much time trying to get it. 

"We need to work harder, but I don’t give up. When we are okay, the speed is there."

Since claiming two wins and a second place at his home round of Misano (round 4), Rinaldi has just one podium which came courtesy of Razgatlioglu and Andrea Locatelli both losing a position after exceeding track limits during the Assen Superpole race. 

While Rinaldi’s form hasn’t been great of late, the 25 year-old remains close in the battle for fourth in the championship, even after rookie Locatelli overhauled his fellow Italian following three fourth place results at Navarra - 19 points separates Alex Lowes, Locatelli and Rinaldi.