Superbike: Great anticipation for the Pata Riviera di Rimini Round

The eni FIM Superbike World Championship will return this weekend to the Misano World Circuit “Marco Simoncelli” for the eighth round of the season and brings with it the expectation of a great return to the track, that of the double category champion Max Biaggi.

The Romagna circuit debuted on the calendar way back in 1991 and, with this year's edition, it will become the Italian track with the highest number of WorldSBK races hosted, currently tied at 44 with Monza.

There are many new features for this 2015 edition, starting with the complete resurfacing of the track, which on paper should guarantee a decidedly better level of grip and performance in all weather conditions, and further increase the safety level of the facility.

Returning to one of the main points of interest this weekend, the two-time Superbike World Champion Max Biaggi has made his return to the track official in Misano, for the first of two "one-off" participations this season on board a third Official RSV4 RF of the Aprilia Racing Team.
The Roman rider will therefore return to action in the Superbike World Championship 985 days after that Sunday in which he won his second World Title (7 October 2012), which was followed, exactly one month later, by the announcement of his retirement.
Biaggi, who as an official test driver has already been able to test the latest model of the Italian super sports car, boasts four successes on the Romagna track (a double in 2010 and 2012) and eight podium placings.

Three-pronged team therefore for the Noale manufacturer, with the standard bearers Leon Haslam and Jordi Torres expected for a great test: back on the podium in Portimao, the English rider boasts two placings in the top 3 at Misano out of twelve races held here in WorldSBK .
His teammate, on the contrary, has never had great luck on this track, having only managed one point out of three races held in Moto2.

At Kawasaki, the one who has been smiling since the beginning of the season is Jonathan Rea who, after the Portuguese round, became the active WorldSBK rider with the highest number of successes, twenty-five, surpassing his teammate Tom Sykes by one victory.
Furthermore, he is the only one to have managed to achieve ten successes in a single edition (in this case, in just over half the season) as well as the first to do this on a Kawasaki.
The fourteen consecutive podiums also equals Troy Corser's record, which had stood since 2005.
In 2009, Rea won his first World Superbike race in Misano, establishing himself in the sprint in the second race by just 65 thousandths of a second ahead of Michel Fabrizio (Ducati).

Having put aside the unfortunate performance in Portimao, conditioned by two technical problems, Sykes continued to look for the right set-up of his ZX-10R on the official test day again on the Algarve circuit.
Misano evokes fond memories for the English driver who won Pole Position here last year, a double and fastest lap in race 1.

The Aruba.it Racing – Ducati Superbike Team has also chosen to field three riders this weekend: Davide Giugliano and Chaz Davies will be joined by Luca Scassa, returning to the track in the Superbike World Championship more than a year after his injury during a test at Mugello in May 2014.

Ducati boasts 28 victories at Misano in WorldSBK, the last two coming in 2011 thanks to a double by Carlos Checa.
The last podium dates back to 2012, when Checa himself and Davide Giugliano finished race 1 in second and third place respectively, behind Max Biaggi.

A track lacking in satisfaction for Suzuki, whose only success so far dates back to 2005 with Troy Corser in the saddle, with the old anti-clockwise configuration.
Despite the lack of significant results on this track (his best placing was eighth), Lowes emerged refreshed from the official tests in Portimao, in which he managed to find the right consistency of performance over distance, while teammate de Puniet he seems to have found a solution to the engine braking problems that limited him so much in the first half of the season.

After the small progress shown in the Algarve and the good indications of the official test, Sylvain Guintoli and Michael van der Mark will try to further close the gap with the leaders, as will Ayrton Badovini (BMW Motorrad Italia) who will have to compete with another rider in the saddle to the S 1000 RR, the wildcard Markus Reiterberger (Van Zon Remeha BMW).

Misano is also an important event for Team Althea Racing, which has formalized the return of Niccolò Canepa to its ranks, after his divorce from Nico Terol, and who will therefore form an all-Italian team with Matteo Baiocco.
In place of the Genoese driver in Team Hero EBR, thirty-five year old Gianluca Vizziello will race, at least for this weekend.

Great expectations also for Leon Camier and the MV Agusta Reparto Corse team, after the double failure in the seventh round caused by technical problems, as well as for Leandro Mercado and the Barni Racing Team, authors of an impeccable debut season so far, which saw them in the points in every race.