Axel Bassani calls Danilo Petrucci “a hero” following epic Misano comeback

Axel Bassani enjoyed his strongest WorldSBK weekend since joining Kawasaki at Misano, claiming two top seven finishes during Sunday’s double-header.

Bassani was sixth in the Superpole Race before claiming P7 in Race 2, leaving the Italian very happy afterwards.

Bassani said: “For sure, this was the best Sunday of the year so far! I’m really happy with the job we did.

“I’m already starting to understand what I have to do on the bike during the race, because it’s very different to last year. We also have to compete in a different way.”

“I’m starting to understand the movement of the bike during the race; the bike is very different in the second part of the race compared to the first part.

“I’m also trying to be more relaxed on the bike and to follow it. The biggest difference is the electronics on this bike; you have to work a lot on these.”

While it was an impressive weekend relative to where he was at the beginning of the season, Bassani lost out by less than two tenths to Danilo Petrucci in Race 2, who was riding with an injury. 

Petrucci was back in action for the first time since his horrible motocross accident.

And despite being in severe pain, Petrucci delivered a heroic performance which was lauded by Bassani post-race.

Bassani added: “On the last lap, I tried to overtake Danilo, but he did an incredible job this weekend; he’s like a hero!

“To come here after two months and have three races like this was incredible.”