Rinaldi’s hard overtaking and shortly after Bassani’s attack which causes his rival to fall. At the press conference, the two ignored each other, did not shake hands and launched mutual accusations. Like Rossi and Biaggi in the past
The Sbk world champion combination Bautista-Ducati also wins, or rather wins hands down, Race 1 at the start of the weekend of the fourth SBK world round in Barcelona. It’s not the umpteenth triumph of Bautista, King of Catalunya and WSBK emperor, that made the news. Every race dominated by the Spanish ace on the Italian racing car is now interpreted not as driving and motorcycle “excellence”, but declassified as a race without history, flat and boring. What made the few spectators in the stands of the Spanish circuit discuss and held court on social media was the bad story of the others two Ducati riders Rinaldi and Bassani, for some time on a war footing, armed against each other. The Rimini area Michael Ruben Rinaldi28 years old, has been an official Ducati Sbk rider since 2021 with a fourth place finish in 2024 and a fifth the year before, twice second and once fourth at the beginning of 2023. The Veneto from Feltre Axel Bassani24 years old, in WSBK since 2022 on the Panigale V4R of the Motocorsa Racing Team, seventh in the world championship last season, two fourth places and four fifth places, his best results at the start of the 2023 season. Rinaldi, whose contract with Ducati expires in at the end of the season, he does everything to make people forget a dull 2022 and keep his place as official also in 2023. Bassani, on the other hand, best “independent” 2022, aims to replace him and therefore looks for results on the track that can convince Borgo Panigale to marry him as coéquipier of the showman Bautista.
The collision on the track
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What happened on the track? Shortly after the start, Rinaldi overtook Bassani, hard but not foul. A few bends and Bassani reciprocates the “courtesy” with a privateer-like counter-overtaking which causes Rinaldi to crash and consequently long lap penalty for Axel. Later, at the press conference, the two met but they ignored each otherlaunching, however, mutual barbs, with loose accusations, without the respective teams having intervened to bring the two runaway colts into line. It’s not nice for Sbk, and more generally for motorcycling, that it’s not the fight on the track to win a world championship round that makes the news (once again, even after the FIM intervention to bring the leading bikes closer with 250 rpm /engine removed from Ducati and with 250 more revs granted to Kawasaki there was no story given the superiority of Bautista’s Red) but the “gladiator” battle between Rinaldi and Bassani, or, if you prefer, between Bassani and Rinaldi .
verbal confrontation
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Rinaldi: “He hit me voluntarily. I fell and hurt my hand. Luckily I didn’t break anything, but my muscles were damaged and I’m in a lot of pain. He didn’t even come to apologize to me and this accentuates the seriousness of what he did ”. Bassani: “Mine was a completely normal overtaking. We were both in a fold, I saw that there was room and I slipped in. He tried to close the door for me. We touched and he fell. A normal race contact. Shortly before that he too had passed me hard. They are overtakings that are in the race. These are the races. Apologies? If I have to apologize then he should have done it sooner too, because the difference between the two overtakings was that when he passed me I lifted the bike to avoid contact, while he didn’t and he crashed”.
The fights between Rossi and Biaggi
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Yep, this is racing. But it didn’t take much, after the race, to exchange a few words with a handshake, perhaps on the fly and with a look away, as they had done in their day Rossi and Biaggi, two felines with poisoned teeth but masters in managing themselves and managing even the most mangy quarrels. Today, what the two Italian drivers did on the Barcelona circuit, they call themselves “sportellate” (in car racing). In the past, more simply, they were called “sticks” or “barrels”. Once upon a time, the rider who stripped the paint from the fairings of his opponents’ bikes when cornering was appreciated by the Team and acclaimed by the fans: but only if the “killer manoeuvre” was successful, otherwise it could cost the author of the gamble dearly, not so much with loss of places in the standings because the rules did not exist, but afoot from the house. At the same time, the pilot who had suffered the shame, had no choice but to “make it tit for tat” as soon as possible.
Violent punches
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For tests and counter-tests there is no need to go back to the motorcycling days of the “Days of Courage” in the 1950s and 1960s. Remaining in SBK, today for an accident like the one in Assen between Fogarty and Chili, the English rider would have cost … the stake. He could continue indefinitely, with the “ifs” and the “buts”, and he would never come out. Michael Rinaldi and Axel Bassani don’t like each other, and not just from today. And this is not a crime. In motorcycling there is a long list of “incompatible” rival-riders, such as, just to give a recent example, between Valentino Rossi and Marc Marquez. It’s not (only) a question of character. In MotoGP it is decided on the track who is the Emperor of motorcycling. And here it is decided on the track who is the SBK “King of the forest”. Rinaldi and Bassani were immediately called upon to make a qualitative leap in their way of racing and managing relationships on and off the track. Right away.
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