Ducati riders make podium breakthrough at Catalunya
It’s the men in red that shine in Barcelona’s scorching heat
t an event where everybody tipped Kawasaki and Yamaha for success, the fact Ducati occupied five out of six podium positions in the main races at Barcelona just typified the nature of this year’s World Superbike championship. Michael Ruben Rinaldi has made an impressive breakthrough with base setup, meaning Friday practice sessions now involve finetuning as opposed to quantum leaps. With testing and practice so limited and the field more tightly packed than it has been
Afor years, finding the sweet spot is the difference between victory and tenth. Measures to equal the series have seen 12 riders from eight teams securing podiums. Rinaldi had previously won this season with a Misano double but has since received criticism from pundits who deemed this a flash in the pan at his home circuit. Always true to his word, the 25-year-old from Rimini stated on Friday that he had the pace to win; and he did just that with his Panigale V4R on Sunday, coupled with third on Saturday behind Scott Redding and Axel Bassani in Ducati’s first 1-2-3 since Sylvain Guintoli, Davide Giugliano and Carlos Checa locked out the rostrum on their 1098Rs at Assen in 2012. Rinaldi still has the same competitive streak that saw him challenge and beat Toprak in Superstock 600 and 1000 races. He may be shorter than other riders but works extremely hard on fitness to ensure he has the core strength to muscle the bike around the direction changes of the Catalunya circuit, then unleashing his power-to-weight advantage on the straights.
Sunday’s Race 2 saw an apparent tyre gamble pay off for Ducati. As it happens, it wasn’t so much a gamble as being forced to run the harder SC0 out of fear that the softer SCX wouldn’t last. All but Rinaldi and Redding used the SCX based on data from practice. It left onlookers puzzled; why had almost the entire field chosen the less durable tyre after spending the weekend airing their concerns tyre degradation? Redding was sublime, fighting from 11th to the win in Race 1 and third in Race 2 but nonscoring in the Sprint after Andrea Locatelli crashed in front of him. Redding moves to within 60 points of Toprak.
‘Redding came from 11th to take the win’
Following in the footsteps of legendary figures such as Chili, Pirovano, Falappa and Simoncelli, Axel Bassani has become the 20th Italian rider to achieve a podium finish in World Superbikes. The very fact he did so with the independent Motocorsa team and that his Panigale’s winglets were adorned with green, white and red flags just added to the romanticism of the occasion.
Bassani is a charming character, Rossi-like in his expressions and emotionally driven. He’s a classic Ducati rider. His biggest problem in Saturday’s rain-affected Race 1 was a visibility issue from the inside of his
‘Charming and driven… a classic Ducati rider’
helmet… the 22-year-old admitting he cried for the entire final lap as he fended off compatriot Michael Ruben Rinaldi, finishing second to Scott Redding in a Ducati podium lockout (see left).
It was a reminder of why Bassani was considered for the factory ride next year, although Aruba went for Alvaro Bautista, but another year with the private team – away from the spotlight – will do Bassani no harm whatsoever. From Feltre in Northern
Italy, a stone’s throw from the Austrian border, Bassani told MCN that his parents’ motivation for his name came from the credits of a film; it was quite possibly Axel Foley of
Beverly Hills Cop fame, although Bassani laughs, “I don’t know!”. His Motocorsa team played a huge part in the development of the Panigale V4R, tested extensively by Lorenzo Zanetti in 2018 prior to its crushing World Championship debut with Bautista the following season.
Some look to Rinaldi as Ducati’s first Italian World Superbike Champion but Bassani’s progress during the next couple of seasons will be fascinating to watch.