SBK, Bassani: "In trouble because of the tires. Bulega has a different pace here."

Axel Bassani ended the first day of the Australian tests, which was just a taste to the start of the 2025 SBK Championship scheduled for next weekend. He came in 14th position, quite far from his teammate Alex Lowes, who came in 6th and was better than him at adapting to the tires proposed this Monday by Pirelli. This created some problems for the Italian and, by his own admission, he was unable to get the most out of his Bimota.

"This morning was a bit tough because we were forced to use the SC2 on the front, and I already knew I didn't like it. Since there weren't enough tires, I had to accept the situation. Overall, the sensations weren't bad," he said. "In the afternoon, we tried something new and did two runs of ten laps each, to simulate the race pace. Let's say I was pretty consistent, but a little too slow. The pace is there, we just lack speed, and that makes us suffer in direct comparison with the others. We'll see tomorrow if we're able to progress in terms of speed in the straights, but not only that. I have to admit that this is the first time I've struggled like this on this bike."

Asked if he expected such a significant drop from the previous tests in Europe, the Venetian said: "No, I was hoping to replicate the sensations I had so far. More precisely,  I felt the same on the bike, but we lack speed. Now we, more or less, figured out where to intervene, and we'll try to do it tomorrow. In the end, it's just a test, and I'm not that kind of rider. In these situations, I always feel like I'm pushing one hundred percent and, instead, I'm then going faster in the race. Hopefully, that will be the case this time, as well."

Regarding the performance of his pit neighbor, the 25-year-old downplayed the gap. "We're not that far apart in performance. There are some areas where I gain more, others where he gains more, but we're similar in lap times. Then, at the end, he did 1'29"8 with a race tire and he got four tenths on me. Otherwise, up to that point, we were at two, three tenths. That's normal, because Alex has always been fast here. My goal is not to lag behind by more than three tenths," he explained.

Finally, a prediction about the first weekend. "Razgatlioglu was the victim of a bad fall so, when he returned to the track, he did it with lead feet, in order to regain confidence. We'll see. But Bulega has a different pace than the others," he concluded.