Bassani: “Not the race I wanted, I started to have a lot of problems”

After achieving his best qualifying result in WorldSBK, Bassani then made is way to the lead of the race by overtaking Andrea Locatelli.

But just a lap later Bassani had a huge wobble coming out of turn two which put him on the backfoot.

• Razgatlioglu: “I tried to keep fighting but it wasn’t enough” 
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The Italian lost three places as Locatelli, Alvaro Bautista and Toprak Razgatlioglu all swooped through. 

"Not the race we wanted," Bassani told WorldSBK.com. "I started well but after two laps, the feeling with the bike wasn’t the same as free practice. I started to have a lot of problems with the front tyre. 

"I tried to manage to finish the race. The feeling wasn’t good. I don’t know. Now we will try to understand why. 

"The bike was the same as practice, the tyres were the same. We’ll look at the data and try to understand what we can do tomorrow. 

"I think we have the potential for a podium. We are really fast. We will try to start Sunday with a good feeling and battle for the podium."

Managing to avoid a similar slide to Bassani, fellow Italian rider Locatelli was a contender for the podium early on before failing to match the pace of Bautista, Razgatlioglu and Jonathan Rea.

The Yamaha rider put in a good performance considering he felt as though a wrong tyre choice was made. 

Locatelli said: "Maybe the choice of tyres we made for today was wrong because I started to feel a lot of closing and pushing on the left, because this track has a lot of chicanes. 

"It was good race, P4, and not too far from the podium. Maybe, tomorrow, we can get the podium especially in the Superpole Race. 

"We can be strong for 10 laps and then we will see, but we need to be happy because it’s my first time here at Imola with this bike. 

"Battling with Bautista and Toprak is one target we can have. Tomorrow, I would like to fight. I think we have a good chance to fight with them."