BbKRT Ready For WorldSBK Round Two

The second round of the 2026 FIM Superbike World Championship will take place between 27-29 March at the Autodromo Internacional do Algarve, with bimota by Kawasaki Racing Team (BbKRT) riders Axel Bassani and Alex Lowes aiming to put in podium performances once again.

After a strong start to the competitive year for both bimota KB998 Rimini riders, Bassani enters round two in second place in the overall championship ranking, having scored two podiums at the opening round in Australia. Lowes also secured a podium finish in the Superpole Race at Phillip Island, and is currently ninth overall - only ten points behind the rider in third place.

After the busy travel, pre-season test and race schedule that characterised the start of the new season in Australia, there was little rest for the whole BbKRT squad on their return to Europe. Bassani and Lowes, plus some of their rivals, took to the track again for a test session - at the same ‘Portimao’ circuit they will race at this coming weekend.

With the original test plan cut short by one day due to adverse weather conditions, an extra day was added to the test, which provided clear and dry track conditions on Friday 13 March.

Although each BbKRT rider and their respective pit crews worked on their own priorities, as well as overall development for 2026 and beyond at the tests, the experience gained while lapping the 4.592km Portimao circuit will be invaluable when they start to find their optimal race settings on the KB998 Rimini, starting from the first two Free Practice sessions, on Friday 27 March.

Saturday’s action at Portimao will feature Tissot Superpole Qualifying, followed by the first 20-lap WorldSBK race of the weekend. Sunday 27 March will feature the ten-lap Tissot Superpole Race and then Race Two, which will be held over 20 laps.

Alex Lowes stated: “Portimao is a mega-track and everybody loves it. We had a test there recently. We worked hard and the bike felt good, so I am excited to get started on the weekend. I felt like the speed we had in the first round in Australia, especially after we made some changes between day one and day two, was good. To pick up the first podium of the year was great, and to have both riders on the podium was fantastic for the team. The target is to keep the momentum going now into Europe. I feel, probably, I did not quite get the results that I had the speed for at PI, so in Portimao I am looking forward to getting a solid weekend, having a good qualifying, enjoying the racing and trying to fight to be back on the podium. That has to be our target this year; to be as close as we can to podiums. The guys in the team have been doing a good job and I can’t wait to get out on track again.”

Axel Bassani stated: “We are ready for the second round of the season and I think we will arrive there quite ready. The season began in a really solid way, with two podiums, and also a fourth place in the first race. We are ready to race again and we know that if everything is OK we can do a good job. We did some tests at Portimao, but during these tests we tried some different items, so we did not really work for the Portimao race weekend. We did not try to put in fast laps but we focused more on the future and the rest of this season. I think we understand what we need to change for the race weekend at Portimao itself. I am not sure what our potential can be but we will try to be as ready as possible from first practice on Friday, and then we will see what happens.”