Bassani explains triple WSBK penalty, apologises to Baz

Bassani was running inside the top 10 in the final race of the Argentina weekend when he clashed with Loris Baz at Turn 12 on the second lap, leaving the Bonovo BMW rider on the ground.

The stewards deemed Bassani responsible for the incident and handed him a long lap penalty, but the Italian rider failed to serve the sanction within the three-lap limit and had his punishment doubled.

Bassani couldn't complete his double long lap penalty on time either and ultimately had to come into the pitlane for a ride-through penalty, plummeting to 20th position in the final order.

It marked the 23-year-old’s worst race finish of the season and allowed Yamaha’s Andrea Locatelli to jump ahead of him to sixth in the riders’ standings.

While apologetic to Baz for ruining his race, Bassani explained he bizarrely never found out that he had been given his long lap penalties, and it wasn’t until the ride-through was awarded that he realised the stewards had taken action against him for his collision with the Frenchman.

"First of all, I would like to apologise to Loris. It was not my intention to make him crash," said Bassani.

"I didn't complete the first long-lap penalty because there was no message from race control on my dashboard and I was fully concentrated on my race.

"I didn't look at my pit board and didn't see that I had been given a penalty. Otherwise I would have implemented the penalty immediately. In the end, I got a ride-through penalty. I apologise to my team because I threw away a good result."

Loris Baz, Bonovo Action BMW

Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

Baz was able to remount his BMW and resume the race but he could only recover to 17th by the end of the 21-lap contest, missing out on a points finish by just under five seconds.

It marked a sad conclusion to what had been his most difficult weekend of the season so far, with the 29-year-old only having a ninth-place finish in the Superpole race to show for his efforts.

Baz was visibly frustrated after the incident with Bassani and posted a picture on Instagram displaying his middle finger, with the caption “today’s feeling.”

Recapping his weekend later, Baz said: “All of us BMWs have been struggling here and I think it was not the easiest track for us, but I think I was riding pretty well all weekend.

“I had a really, really good start in the second race, I was in the top five and then I was just trying to ride gently and not use the tyre. 

“Bassani took me out, so that was over. I restarted, finished 17th, unfortunately no points. 

“Coming to Argentina and all this traveling for one point in the Superpole race is not a big reward, but as a team we did a great job, never gave up all weekend.”