Alvaro Bautista accuses Jonathan Rea of 'intentional' crash which took him out of WSBK race at Magny-Cours

ByEurosport

Updated 11/09/2022 at 15:54 GMT

Alvaro Bautista crashed out of Race 2 at Magny-Cours, France when he was hit by Kawasaki's Jonathan Rea on Turn 14. Bautista believes Rea intentionally hit him in order to knock him out of the race. Bautista is currently top of the WorldSBK Superbike standings after seven rounds of racing. Rea says he apologised to Bautista after the rac.e, but believes his manouevre was not "over the line".

Alvaro Bautista believes that title rival Jonathan Rea intentionally took him out of Race 2 at Magny-Cours, France.

The Spaniard currently leads the WorldSBK standings ahead of six-time champion Rea in second. The Briton is narrowly ahead of third-placed Toprak Razgatlioglu who claimed victory on Sunday.

But there was a moment of real controversy on the entry to Turn 14 when Rea went to the inside of Bautista and hit the Ducati rider, sending him off his bike and sliding into the gravel.

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Bautista, who was forced to retire as Rea finished fifth, says his rival cannot be considered "a champion" after pulling off a manoeuvre he called "irresponsible".

"I think it's very clear," he said.

"You can watch on TV what happened. Jonathan did an irresponsible manoeuvre and he went into me, hit me and I crashed. I think it's unacceptable coming from a rider but especially coming form a great champion like him.

"I don't think it's the best way to beat other riders. We battled in the past and I've never seen this before. It's incredible how a big champion like him does this.

"It's not the way to do. He's shown the people he's fast and he won but by doing this kind of action he's not a real champion.

"He has to accept what happened on the track and this year for sure he is struggling with Toprak and me, but sometimes we have to accept the situation.

"Today he didn't accept it and tried to take me out of the race. Unacceptable coming from a rider but especially coming from me it has not been a mistake, it's irresponsible on his side. I'm OK physically so let's keep the work we are doing."

Bautista hits out at ‘great champion’ Rea for ‘unacceptable’ manoeuvre at Magny-Cours

Bautista believes Rea intentionally crashed into him and that he had caused a "safety problem".

"For sure I think it was intentional," he said.

"And for me it doesn't matter about points, racing or championships, but it's a safety problem that I crashed. Fortunately I have no problem physically, but what happens if I crashed and broke my leg?

"I enjoy the battles, one time Jonathan can win, I can win or Toprak. This is good for the championship and I'm so happy to be in the fight but this is not a question about the championship, this is about safety and today was out of the limit for safety."

Rea received a long lap penalty for the incident. Bautista did not feel the punishment was strong enough.

He added: "It's ridiculous. I think if you put out another rider intentionally to just get a long lap penalty... believe me it was intentional. For me it's not a fair penalisation.

"Anyway I cannot make the penalty. This is not my decision but I say what I see and then I don't have the power to act."

Rea apologised to Bautista afterwards for the crash, but says his manoeuvre was not "over the line".

"Firstly, I’m really sorry he went down. There was some contact there," said Rea.

"I’ve been to see him already and offered him my apologies and gave my point of view. I listened to him so, for me, I’ve turned the page now. I arrived at Turn 13 with zero bad intentions. I only had to make a pass; I knew that Toprak would be the guy with the pace.

"I tried to make a good last sector before the long back straight. I went down to the inside, he committed to the apex so, of course, there was contact.

"For me, it wasn’t an over the line manoeuvre. I made my apex. I didn’t blow my own corner. Of course, I’m sorry he lost points; I don’t want to ride in this way. I got the penalty. I didn’t know whether to expect something or not and I had to take it.”

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