Danilo Petrucci claimed his sixth podium of the season and his fourth in a row in the opening race of the weekend in Misano.

For the fourth race in a row, Danilo Petrucci featured on a World Superbike podium for the Barni Spark Racing Team.

The Italian took a hat-trick of third places last time out at the Autodrom Most and extended his run of podiums at the Misano World Circuit Marco Simoncelli.

Despite this being his sixth podium of the year, Petrucci did not expect to be on the podium due to his 'mess' of a Qualifying session.

"This morning was a mess in Qualifying," Petrucci said to TNT Sports after Race One.

"Then in the race, I had some wheels on my sleeve at the beginning, where I was fighting in the middle of the group.

"I found a way to pass Alex, but then I was not able to push, so I had to defend for the rest of the race. It was really tough, and Alex did a great job.

"I wanted to be on the podium, but I did not expect a podium. In the end, we made it, but it was really hard."

The track temperature during the opening race of the weekend came out at 47 degrees, with air temperatures at 30 degrees.

The Italian rider described how difficult it is to complete a 21-lap Superbike race in those conditions.

"It is really physical," he explained.

"More or less in the middle of the race, I was done. Then lap by lap, it becomes a countdown, you wait for the last lap like it is Christmas.

"It is really physical, I was sweating a lot because of the humidity, it was really hard, and tomorrow will be even harder."