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The first contact between the Aruba Ducati riders and the Navarra circuit went very well. Scott Redding closed the first day of free practice with a third time in the combined, which bodes well for the rest of the race weekend. His teammate, Rinaldi, suffered slightly more but, being able to improve in the afternoon (something none of the top rivals could do) can also be a good sign for the young Italian rider.
Having defined his future, which will be with BMW starting in 2022, may have given Scott Redding some piece of mind and, at this point, he’ll have to focus only on the track, in order to try to fight for the title until the end of the season, with the certainty of having a factory bike in the near future. In short, both Ducati and Scott seem to want to end this love story in the best way possible, since it was greatly satisfying for both.
“Honestly, I enjoyed it today,” Redding explained. “I felt good and did a lot of laps. It wasn’t actually planned, but I was having fun and thought I’d stay on track. Every time they signaled me to come back, I said to myself, ‘come on, one more lap, and that’s it’. But then I ran out of gas. I felt good on the bike. The important thing was the change in temperature between morning and afternoon, which will be that of the race. I have to adapt my riding style a bit to these conditions. I was able to relax somewhat before this race, and it’s a great way to approach a race weekend. Then, I like this track. It reminds me of a supermotard track, with lots of skidding in corner entry, you have to use the first often. It’s not the kind of track that I usually like but, on the other hand, I feel good here.”
How do you think you’ll place in view of the competition?
“I think I have a good pace. I don’t think I have to revolutionize the bike. I saw that there are several holes on the track, which is something we need to pay attention to. This might be the only negative aspect that also affects the set-up of the bike and on which we have to work.”
Now that you’ve signed with BMW for 2022, does anything change for the present?
“My goal is to win. If the bike works, I only think about winning. If this isn’t possible, I’ll try to get the best possible result. After Donington, I changed my approach slightly, and it seems to work well, because I’m having more fun on the bike now. As always, I’ll ride to the best of my ability here, hoping that it’ll be enough to stay up front.”
Ruben Rinaldi’s day wasn't bad either, since he finished with a seventh place in the combined, which doesn’t completely do justice to his potential. Rinaldi was, in fact, one of the very few able to improve his reference between morning and afternoon, proving that he could clearly progressed.
“It was a bit of a difficult day,” Rinaldi confessed, “because I had zero confidence with my bike this morning. Fortunately, the conditions were very different this afternoon. It was warmer and everyone struggled more while we improved. So, I’m quite satisfied.”
Do you think you can fight for the podium here?
“We’re still missing something, but I know that, by still working hard, we’ll continue progressing. Being third in this round isn’t bad, we just need to generally improve the package.”
