Lorenzo Zanetti has landed another World Superbike Championship outing on home soil this weekend after being called up by the Go Eleven Ducati team as the latest replacement for Eugene Laverty.
The Italian, a race winner at WorldSSP Championship level, made his first WorldSBK start for seven years earlier this season at Imola as part of the wild-carding Motocorsa Ducati team, scoring a best result of ninth position.
One of the riders involved in the development of the successful new Ducati Panigale V4 R, Zanetti will now get a second outing on the machine, this time with full-season entrants Go Eleven in place of Laverty, who will miss a third round due to injuries sustained in a crash at Imola.
“Replacing an injured rider is never nice, nobody wishes it, but unfortunately this is part of the races,” he said. “I'm glad that both the Go Eleven Team and Ducati have thought of me in this context. I will try to make my experience as a Ducati test rider available and give my best on a special weekend like Misano.
“It will be my first opportunity to work with this team, with a different technical package than the bike I normally use in tests, but even this is a way to check other technical solutions and report them when developing the bike, with detailed directions.
“It's a great opportunity, racing on the home track, in front of your audience with Team and Italian motorbike will be wonderful; I couldn't ask for more!”
Go Eleven’s official correspondence suggests Tommy Bridewell, who rode the Ducati at Imola and Jerez – scoring a tenth place peak in the latter outing – could have had the opportunity to ride at Misano but will focus on his British Superbike Championship title bid and his upcoming Suzuka 8 Hours outing.
