Both Max Biaggi and Jonathan Rea are claiming the other is to blame for causing the crash which ended their participation in the first World Superbike race at Motorsport Park yesterday evening.

The Castrol Honda man says the move into turn 12, approprotely named 'Gotcha', by Biaggi was an'intimidating attempt at a pass' while the Alitalia man reckons he was 'touched by Rea and couldn't avoid the crash'. Rea also Tweeted later he had been 'Simoncelli'd' by the Italian.

"Frustrating is a word we’ve been using a lot this weekend but it’s a bit too generalised really. We just haven’t had a package that we could compete with this weekend and it was all I could do to finish where I did in race two," said Rea.

"Obviously, the day wasn’t helped by not coming home with 21 laps of data from race one. On the first lap of that one, I was the victim of a very intimidating attempt at a pass that went wrong and we both fell down."

Biaggi retorted: "It's a real shame about the first race. Unfortunately Rea touched me and I couldn't avoid the crash. I have a few bruises that are bothering me, so now we'll have to take a good look at things and hopefully there is nothing serious."