A promising Saturday morning ended in a disastrous weekend for Axel Bassani at Bimota's home round of the World Superbike season.
The Emilia-Romagna World Superbike Round started with promise for Axel Bassani and the bimota by Kawasaki Racing Team.
Bassani was able to qualify on the front row of the grid on Saturday morning in the Superpole session. However, the Italian would then crash out of the lead in Race One, before crashing out of the Superpole Race on Sunday morning.
Bassani's crash in the Superpole Race saw him collide with the Championship leader, Nicolo Bulega. This incident at the first corner of the ten-lap race would see both Italians out of the running.
"It has not really been a good day," Bassani told WorldSBK.com after Sunday's track action.
"In the Superpole Race, I crashed with Nicolo [Bulega]. I am so sorry for crashing with him; I was trying to stay in second place.
"He was able to stop the bike better than me and close the door. I tried to stop the bike, but I lost the front and we crashed, so I am sorry. For him, for Ducati and for his team, because they are fighting for the Championship and I am not.
"I feel really bad because I do not like to do the race like this, I am not a rider who tries to put someone down. Especially Nicolo, because he is fighting for something that is really important, so I am really sorry for him."
Bassani was later given a double long lap penalty for Race Two, due to his contact with Bulega. This was a penalty that the 25-year-old accepted and believes he deserved.
"My feeling is like a normal human, I feel really bad," he explained.
"But we are professional riders, so I did my race like normal, I tried to do my best. With a double long lap penalty, you know that your race is completely finished.
"I tried to push, but my feeling with the bike was not very good, so I tried to just arrive at the chequered flag.
"But I think the penalty was correct, because if someone does something like this, you have to give a penalty like this. It is part of the game, and I accept it."
