Bautista: “Why don’t the other rockets win”? Bassani - “I’m not Valentino”

Bautista put on another dominant display last weekend at round three of the WorldSBK championship in Assen. 

The Aruba.it Ducati rider completed his second clean sweep of the season, meaning he has now won eight of the first nine races.

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In a league of his own at the present moment, both because of his riding ability and the strengths of the Ducati, the Spaniard was quick to point at other Ducati riders struggling when measuring his current success and whether the bike deserves the same credit.

Bautista added: "Many people say, ‘Alvaro only wins because the bike is a rocket’, but then why don’t the other rockets win? Or, ‘Alvaro wins because he’s 20kg less than Toprak for example’, but OK, Michael Ruben Rinaldi is more or less my weight and he struggles a bit more. 

"At the end, for me, it doesn’t matter what people think. I know what the feeling of the bike is and to ride in this way, it isn’t easy. I have to put a lot of effort to ride this bike.

"I invite all the people to ride this bike; the bike is nice but you have to ride the bike in this way and have the confidence to do so in order to go fast. 

"There is a step that you need to pass and if you don’t pass, then you’ll never go fast. The way to ride this bike is more of a MotoGP style, and here there aren’t a lot of MotoGP riders. 

"I had the luck to race there and I can use that experience to ride the bike and have the confidence to ride the bike like this. I think it’s the combination: it’s not a bike, rider or team, it’s the combination."

One rider who, to Bautista’s point does not have MotoGP experience, is Motocorsa Ducati rider Axel Bassani.

The Italian was impressive in Assen as he finished all three races as the next best Ducati behind Bautista.

Even more pleasing for the 23-year-old would have been the fact he out-performed Michael Ruben Rinaldi throughout, with the factory rider enduring a nightmare round. 

Yet, Bassani was still a long way away from the pace shown by Bautista as he instead battled Andrea Locatelli in all three races and Dominique Aegerter in Race 2.

Bassani could have finished fourth which would have been his best result of the weekend, however, a moment that mirrored Valentino Rossi and Marc Marquez’s incident at the Geert Timmer chicane a few years ago saw him run off track and gain an advantage, thus resulting in him losing P4 to Aegerter.

Speaking of the incident and narrowly missing out on the podium, Bassani said: "We arrived at the last chicane, touched and I went straight. I tried to copy Valentino Rossi and Marc Marquez, but I’m not Valentino! 

"The penalty is correct; I tried to stay ahead of Dominique, but he was better than me in the final three laps. In the next race, we’ll try and stay in front. 

"I’m not happy as I tried to stay with Locatelli to fight for the podium, but it was really difficult; Yamaha at this track are really fast. One Ducati was really fast, with Alvaro, but the other Ducatis were struggling a bit. 

"Two top five results at this circuit is good for us. Sixth in the Superpole Race is good as it's not really my race! We are really near to the podium, but we need to understand what we need to get there, and we’ll try to find a solution."