Yesterday, Lorenzo Baldassarri was involved in a nasty crash at Balaton Park; his Ducati was wrecked, and he took a hard fall. Today, he managed to put the incident behind him and celebrated a third-place finish in the Superpole Race, while narrowly missing the podium in Race 2.
““After what happened yesterday, it was definitely very important to come back and confirm the pace I’d had all weekend,” explained the Go Eleven team rider. "Even though it was difficult because yesterday we really took a hard hit, both me and the bike. The team did a great job fixing all the damage, and there wasn’t much left of my poor ‘lady,’ my poor bike. I have to say that I, too, was close to not being cleared to race, but this morning, starting from the first lap of warm-up, I managed to put everything that happened yesterday behind me and confirmed my pace in both the Superpole Race and the main race, even though my rivals had one more race under their belts and therefore more data.”
Balda has nevertheless shown he can hold his own. While the Aruba team duo seems a step ahead, he is right on their heels.
“The two riders from the factory team are on a higher level, especially Bulega, but I feel inspired; I’m very motivated to work even harder to close the gap on them - he continued - Today I saw, from the middle of the race onward, that I wasn’t far behind Iker in terms of pace, and I closed in significantly on Montella. This gives me momentum, and I need to keep up this consistency.”
It wasn’t easy to predict such results after the bad crash in Race 1; Lorenzo had decided not to watch that crash again.
“I managed to avoid it,” he smiled. “I think I’ll watch it tomorrow when I review all the races. When I’m in first place in a race, like today in the Superpole Race, there’s always a red flag; it happened to me last year in MotoE too. As for the crash, I know what happened, and if I’d ridden like I did today, it wouldn’t have happened: it’s one of those things you learn afterward; it was another lesson.”
A lesson that could have cost him dearly.
“I took quite a ‘hit’; I thought they’d declare me ‘unfit’ after seeing the helmet,” he explained. “Instead, they told me it held up well under impact, and I have to thank Arai for saving me. I was a bit dazed at first, but then I felt fine.”
Baldassarri, however, thinks that some riders are pushing the limits too far in the race.
“In my opinion, we’re all here to race and give our best, but we need to calm down —he urged— I’ve been saying for a few races now that some people are acting crazy, that we’re taking too many risks, especially in the short race. It seems like there are those who, in the first two laps, feel they have to ride the race of their lives even without the pace, just to show off, but that’s not right because we get hurt, as has happened. Compared to the past, the situation has improved, but we need to ride with a bit more awareness, especially when we’re out front. There are riders who ride over the top and risk crashing every time; I don’t want to name names, but I’ll speak directly with them. Today the roles were reversed—I had to ride over the top myself—but I didn’t make any moves that risked causing someone to crash. It’s something I don’t like, but I made it clear that I deserve respect.”
Before signing off, he talked about his friend Bulega and his chance to move up to MotoGP with the VR46 team. “It’s possible he’ll go there, but I don’t know on which bike. I’d be happy for him; he deserves it.”