Praise from the Superbike World Championship professional: Michael Rinaldi impressed by Lukas Tulovic

Michael Rinaldi’s Superbike career came to an end last year after 242 races. The Italian secured five wins and 23 podium finishes (all with Ducati), but his performances were too inconsistent and he was unable to find a team for 2026. The 30-year-old has returned to the Italian championship and is racing this year for the Ducati team B-Max-Racing, with whom Lukas Tulovic made a guest appearance at Misano last weekend.

With a third place and a win, the German impressed across the board on his debut – despite the fact that the 2025 IDM champion had to adapt to Dunlop tyres and the configuration of the Ducati V4R also differed from his usual bike.

Tulovic hopes that performances like this will attract more attention and, in the long term, offer him the chance to move up to the World Superbike Championship. His performance certainly impressed his Italian team-mate, at any rate. With two second-place finishes, Rinaldi also performed excellently, but ended up with one point fewer than the 26-year-old from Eberbach.

“I have to congratulate Lukas on his consistent performance throughout the race. He steadily improved over the weekend and really made life difficult for me,” praised the long-serving Ducati works rider.

In the first race, Rinaldi managed to hold off Tulovic with a borderline manoeuvre. “Actually, I had to attempt a slightly too aggressive manoeuvre on the first lap,” the Italian admitted. “But we’re making progress. I hope to take that final step forward and completely resolve the minor issues that are still bothering me a little. Nevertheless, we’re heading home with two second-place finishes under our belt. During the first three race weekends, we hadn’t even come close to the podium. So I see the glass as half full.”