San Carlo Team Italia’s Axel Bassani was delighted to clinch the FIM Europe Supersport Cup title at the Gaerne Spanish Round on Sunday, with his fifth place finish in the WorldSSP race.

The #JerezWorldSBK round brought the FIM Europe Supersport Cup to a close, with the Cup riders competing in the WorldSSP class at European rounds only.

Bassani’s top five performance at the Spanish circuit on his Kawasaki ZX-6R was enough to secure him the Cup, ahead of Illia Mykhalchyk and Alessandro Zaccone, who finished the season second and third respectively.

Italian rider Bassani came to attention in 2015 thanks to two stand-out performances in STK600, a sixth place in Jerez and a podium in Magny-Cours, earning him a San Carlo Team Italia WorldSSP ride for 2016. He started the season just 16 years of age and turned 17 only in July.

Having clinched the title Bassani commented, “Today was pretty difficult because yesterday in Superpole 2 I had a bad crash and completely destroyed the bike. The team has almost had to rebuild the bike from scratch. The feeling wasn’t good in Warm Up but I got into my stride in the first laps of the race, and when Cluzel passed me I passed him back because I wanted to be able to keep my rhythm.”

“I want to say a big thank you to the team and Manuel Puccetti, and everyone involved, for all the work they have done – and especially this weekend. I didn’t feel nervous, I was quite calm despite the pressure. I tried to think about the Cup as little as possible and just focus on the race – so I was quite calm. That helped me a lot, to only think about the race and nothing else.”