Rinaldi and Bassani made contact tw🥂ice during the first of three WorldSBK races in Catalunya, after an overtake from Rinaldi at turn three saw him gently move Bassani off⛦ line.

Visibly angered by the manoeuvre, Bassani retaliated with his own forceful move o🦋n the exit of turn 10, but 𒁃this time it resulted in a crash for Rinaldi. 

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After calling out Bassani post-race an﷽d claiming the Motocorsa Ducati rider made him crash on purpose, Rinaldi was not shy in reaffirming his feelings: "On the first flying lap, Axel tried to overtake me, and I was a little bit su꧙rprised because, during practice, he was pretty slow compared to the top group. 

"Maybe he wanted to do someꦍ parts of the race in front. If you see h𓃲is time at the end of the race, it’s pretty bad compared to the top. 

"Because he’s an Independent rider and I♔’m a factory rider, he has more fight to overtake me. I re-overtook him and when I did that, there was room. 

"We touched, it was a hard overtake from me, but clean. That means the rider doesn’t lose time, the rider doesn’t crash, and the rider doesn’t go to th💝e green. I don’t know what happened to his brain because, after I overtook him, I rode well. 

"He ran into me on purpose because you can do this if you think ‘I want to make him crash’. He made me crash. There was no space. It’s not a place you can overtake, and you don’t th⛄ink there’s someone on the outside. He knows what he did." 

Bassani was given a Long-lap penalty for his ༒role in the incident before fading badly during the closing stages🤡.

But when speaking about the clash with Rinaldi, the Italian called it a nor♌mal incideꩲnt: "He tried to overtake me and touched me. After, I tried to overtake him to stay in second position. I think we had the potential to be on the podium. We touched; I think it’s a normal racing incident. 

"Sometimes it happens. I had my penalty and I finished in seventh position, so I think it’s okay. I saw the possibility to make an🍬 ove🔴rtake so I went in. 

"He tried to close the door to defend his position. I think it’s a normal contact in racing. I repeat, I had penalty, I did it, that’s it. He made the same overtake in Turn 3, this is racing. Every rider t𝄹ries to put in 100% every lap and tries to defend their position. 

"He tried to defend his position in Turn 3, and I tried to at Turn 10. I think it’s a normal contact. I don’t have problems wಌith Michael. 

"For me, he’s a noꦯrmal riജder like the rest of the grid. If he has a problem with me, he can come to my box and we can speak."