Pasini reviews high pressure home win

Amidst the furore and controversy of Marco Simoncelli’s overtaking maneouver on Álvaro Bautista in the 250cc Gran Premio d’Italia Alice, a home victory for Mattia Pasini was almost a footnote. Not so for the Italian himself, who made his first appearance on the top step of the podium in 2009 at his home race.

Pasini was riding an Aprilia RSA painted pink to promote ‘Ladies Night’ at his local nightclub in Rimini, and it wasn’t just the colour scheme that was unfamiliar to the Team Toth man. With rain falling hard as the competitors were on the grid, his mechanics were left without time to set up the machine for the conditions.

“It was a fun and unbelievable race. With the rain it was so much harder for me, and the pace was still very, very fast,” said Pasini, fresh from the rostrum. “It was also difficult for me because I couldn’t change all the settings for a wet race. We could only put on wet tyres, so the start was very strange because it was all different.”

After chasing down the leaders in the 250cc contest, Pasini was the beneficiary of both his immediate rivals running off-track. It was the key moment in the race, and what perhaps allowed Pasini the sufficient breathing space to hold off a final Simoncelli push.

“Myself, Álvaro and Marco fought for five or six laps, but when Marco hit Álvaro I think the race was decided. I was at the front alone, pushing and pushing, but I didn’t want to make any mistakes. My head is back in the right place now. For Barcelona we still have to work a lot, because there are things for us to improve.”