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It was a tough day at Imola for Ayrton Badovini: as well as being forced to retire in race two, the Grillini Kawasaki rider also received unexpected "compliments" from Tom Sykes, post-race when the Italian was dealing with the disappointment and already mentally preparing for Donington.
During lap one, white smoke unexpectedly appeared from his ZX10R and Ayrton, going flat out, couldn't do much about it: “I definitely couldn't move out of the way - explains Badovini- for various reasons - I was going more than 220km/h, in the section leading to the Variante Alta at the Rivazza braking point; through the fast downhill after the underpass the bike was leaning right over and, feeling that the rear wheel was sliding a lot, I couldn't move over from the centre of the track”.
It wasn't an easy moment for you, on the contrary…
“Exactly, whatever I tried to do would have been dangerous. The bike was sliding all over the place and, if I'd tried to move onto the grass, to the left or right, with the walls so close, I would almost definitely have crashed; Imola is a real up and down track with significant gradient and in any section, moves need to be precise and well thought out. If I had exited, with the risk that the bike might have returned to the centre of the track, causing more serious damage and danger, it would have been worse”.
Sykes didn't exactly hold back, did you read his comments?
“Yes, I know what Tom means. I would probably have seen it as he did, but I want to say something else: I didn't know that the engine was breaking, in fact it wasn't the engine but an external piece of it, an oil sleeve or something. I turned the bike off, manually. I only realised something was broken because the rear was sliding so much. At that speed, i couldn't put my hand up, pull the clutch, turn the bike off and understand what was going on. I wish I could have done more, but it wasn't possible. I also spoke with a member of Dorna staff who understood what happened”.
So we're looking ahead?
“Of course! We'll continue to work to prevent certain breakdowns and to be competitive, it will go a lot better at Donington”.
