Back To Donington Park: Where ...

It was 1988 when the WorldSBK championship first came to life at Donington Park, with the inaugural race victory taken by Davide Tardozzi and the bimota YB4EI. Thirty-seven years and almost 1,000 races later the bimota by Kawasaki Racing Team rider duo of Alex Lowes and Axel Bassani will race at the famous Donington Park circuit in the UK for the first time with the all-new WorldSBK spec bimota KB998 Rimini.

The Donington Park round will take place between 11-13 July and just a few kilometres from the home of British rider Lowes. This will be the seventh event of the 12 round WorldSBK season, which makes Donington the starting point for the second half of the overall campaign.

Thus far the best results for the new KB998 Rimini machine have been third place in Superpole Qualifying at the most recent event in Misano (for Bassani) and second place in the Superpole Race, also at Misano (for Lowes).

In the championship itself Alex is currently seventh overall with Axel 11th. A very tight battle for the top ten positions sees seven riders - from Lowes in seventh to Michael van der Mark in 14th place - covered by just 23 points.

In 2025 the Donington WorldSBK circuit measures 4.023km in length and features two quite distinct characteristics in its overall design. Initially the track has a heavily undulating and flowing nature before the contrasting final sector features a fast chicane, a downhill hairpin right and then a challenging final hairpin left that leads the riders back onto the short start/finish straight.

The Donington Park race weekend gets underway on Friday 11 July, with two periods of Free Practice. FP3, Tissot-Superpole qualifying and a 23-lap Race One will take place on Saturday. Sunday features the ten-lap Superpole Race before the second 23-lap Race Two rounds out the track action for the WorldSBK riders.

After a break of one weekend the championship will get underway again for the eighth round at an all-new circuit - Balaton Park - in Hungary, between 25-27 July.

Alex Lowes stated: “Donington is always a fantastic weekend in the season. It looks like the weather is going to be typical English sunshine. The track itself is great fun. The first section is one of the best to ride in the whole calendar; you can really flow with the bike and enjoy it. The last start/stop sector is important for battling in the race and also for setting a fast lap time in qualifying. I’m optimistic the bimota KB998 Rimini is going to suit the layout. It is a home race for me but nothing changes in terms of our goals, which are to work hard Friday and set ourselves up for the best race weekend possible.”

Axel Bassani stated: “Donington is always a really nice track for the riders. The first part is very fast and it is especially difficult for your body. It is easy to feel pain in your arms because any bike can feel heavy during the fast changes of direction. The feeling we had in the last round at Misano was good and we were fast, but in the end we did not take everything we were able to take. We will see if we can put everything together this weekend and have some good results. The important thing is to be as consistent as possible.”