Bassani: I start to understand the category, the tyres, the bike

Axel Bassani's recent breakthrough continued at Jerez World Superbike as he claimed sixth after a long race two battle with Jonathan Rea. 

The Motocorsa Ducati rider finished race one in eighth before making ‘a little step’ in the afternoon’s second full-length race to initially fight for fourth spot.

The pace Bassani showed could even have been worthy of a podium, however, the youngest rider in the series found getting past Rea an impossible task. 

The two made contact early on at turn six when Bassani clipped the rear of Rea’s Kawasaki, before taking several more looks at getting past into turns one and 10. 

But, Bassani was unable to make the move stick because of Rea’s prowess ‘on the brakes’ and instead settled for sixth after passing a struggling Michael Rinaldi late on.

"Yeah, it was a very good race. I tried to overtake Johnny [Rea] but he was very strong on the brakes, so I tried to stay calm, to focus and to try and take the podium, but today it was not possible," said Bassani. 

"I enjoyed a lot race two. Race one, it was not very good with the front tyre. I had a lot of problems. 

"In race two we made a little step and I’m happy about the work we did. I start to understand the category, the tyres, the bike, and race by race I start to learn a lot from my team and the other riders. 

"It’s the time (on the bike), so step-by-step we try to take the podium, also in the dry condition."