Aprilia’s World Superbike boss Romano Albesiano has said there are no team orders between Sylvain Guintoli and Marco Melandri even though the Frenchman is the only one of the pair in with a shout at this year’s title.

The duo had a high-profile coming together in the rain at Portimao which ended any aspirations Melandri had of the big trophy while Guintoli, Portugal aside, has been the model of consistency.

“It was a mistake, a big one. It happens, especially when you have two top riders and you don’t give team orders. It happened first to Kawasaki, then to us. We are definitely not happy with it, but we must accept it. The riders have talked about it in a peaceful way after the crash and it’s all behind us now,” he said.

But despite their collision and Guintoli’s huge points advantage, Albesiano says team orders are against the spirit of the sport and should only been wheeled out in exceptional cases.

“Sylvain has had a good season so far, he has made a step forward compared to last year as he already won two races. He is fighting again for the championship and he is doing what we were expecting from him. Marco had some problems adapting to the motorcycle at the beginning but we worked hard together, we finally found a good solution and now he is racing at his best.”

We thought about giving team orders a lot, but we still believe it’s not worth to be done now. I think these kinds of decisions are a little bit against the sport and we don’t like them very much. We will see how the situation will shape up, I reckon it should happen only in exceptional cases.”