BbKRT Riders Score On Final Day At Most
Words and images courtesy of Kawasaki Press Racing
Kawasaki Racing Team riders Axel Bassani and Alex Lowes completed the Autodrom Most WorldSBK race weekend on Sunday 18 May. They each achieved one strong points-scoring ride over the final two races.
The first event on Sunday, the Tissot Superpole Race, saw Alex start from fourth place and finish seventh. He battled with two other riders and secured three championship points for his positive Sunday morning pace and consistency.
Axel made an unintentional jump start in the ten-lap ‘sprint’ race. Punished with two long lap penalties and would finish in 18th position.
The BbKRT riders’ relative fortunes would switch around, from the very start of the 22-lap Race Two. Lowes was run off track at Turn One on lap one through no fault of his own. He fought back with great pace and determination, managing to finish 15th and score one more championship point.
Bassani started from a lowly 13th position in Race Two. However, he was soon up in fifth place, thanks to strong and consistent pace for almost the whole of the 22 laps. Passed by just one rider in the final event in Czechia on lap 15, and he finished in sixth position.
Axel was rewarded for his second-best race finish of the season on the bimota KB998 Rimini with an additional ten world championship points.
Dry conditions for the two WorldSBK races on Sunday. However, relatively low ambient temperatures were in evidence once again.
In the Championship standings, Axel is now tenth after the end of round five. Alex is right behind him in the rankings, in 11th place. Axel has a total of 63 points so far and Alex 61.
After Most there will be a small break of three weeks in the racing action.
WorldSBK travels to the Adriatic coast of Italy for the Misano World Circuit ‘Marco Simoncelli’ round. This will run between 13-15 June.
There will be a test for BbKRT at Misano before the race weekend takes place, however, between 27-28 May.
Axel Bassani stated:
“In Race Two the pace was strong; every time we were lapping inside the 1’31s. The feeling with the bike was really good. I was trying to push in an attempt to get inside the fight for P3, but I made a mistake and I lost one position. After that, the pace was quite similar to the other riders. To finish P6 from a starting position of P13 I think is really good. We ended a really hard weekend in a good way. It is important to leave a race weekend with a good sensation, so thank you to the team and see you in Misano.”
Alex Lowes stated:
“Unfortunately our Race Two was destroyed on lap one, when there was a big incident. I had to take avoiding action. I had a pretty OK start, honestly, and our starts have been better this weekend. Race Two was frustrating because we had made a change on the bike, but the race was finished straight away. You cannot be 20 seconds behind after the first turn. I tried to keep going to get some good information because of the change on the bike’s set-up. My pace was pretty strong at the end and I was able to keep a good rhythm. We improved a little bit over the last six or seven laps compared to yesterday, which was a target of ours. It was a shame to have the race destroyed by someone else but we have had a pretty good weekend, even if luck was not on our side right at the end. We have a test coming up, which will be important one. Then we have the Misano round, which is a home race for bimota.”