The pair fought for victory in b🌱oth Rac♑e 1 and the Superpole Race at the Magny-Cours WorldSBK round, and although he failed to finish the latter, Rinaldi was back at his best.

Not a circuit that’s typically been one of his strongest, Rinaldi matches h꧃is best result from last season as he claimed second place in Race 1.

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In contention🌞 to then win the Superpole Race, Rinaldi was hit by teammate Alvaro Bautista after the Spaniard went too deep into turn five.

Discussing his Race 1 fight with Razgatlioglu, Rinaldi added: "I made a good start and tried to give 120% with the tyre; I used it a lot to 🔯stay with Toprak, as he was managing it a bit. 

"It brought us out of a three-rider group. Unfortu🅠nately, Alvaro had some issues and we had a nice, nice ba🍃ttle with Toprak. 

"At the end, my tyre was dead because I didn’t 💎manage it as well. It’s OK because it’s good for me but also a good way to say ‘thanks’ to my team, as at the end of the year, I will not be there but we still have chᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚances to make good memories. 

"I really love to battle with Toprak because it can be hard b🦂ut inside the limit. When he overtook me, I just said ‘OK, you can do that’ as I did it; it’s not a big problem. 

"It was a really nice battle, I have hu🅘ge respect for him and he had respect for me and at the end, he had something🅠 more."

Another Italian rider who had a strong weekend was An🏅drea Locatelli, as the Pata Yamaha rider got stronger in every race.

After claiming a double P4 finish on꧋ Sunday, Locatelli said: "I’m very happy, especially about Race 2 – fortunately after restarted the race, I was feeling much better on the bike and could push right until the end and I finished in P4. 

"For me, we had really good ಞresults here in Magny-Cours and made a really big improvement – also compared to Most. 

"So let’s see what happens in the next rounds! But for sure, it is a good end to this w🧸eekend with a good feeling and a good step forward, so I am really excited to go t𓂃o Aragon now. 

"In the Superpole Race, we were close to the podi🍎um but lost a little bit in the first four or five laps – I recovered a lot under braking compared to Jonathan, but I lost a little bit on the exit of the corner so it was difficult for me to overtake! 

"We need to be happy, we brought hom🦩e really good results – als🍷o for the championship and we will see what happens in the next races."