Front Row Start For Lowes Befo...

Alex Lowes led the pre-race Superpole Qualifying session for some time at his home race and then qualified third fastest overall, earning a front row start. The first race started with great promise for Alex but he would ultimately crash out of contention while leading. Axel Bassani would also fall but he was able to restart to finish just outside the points scoring positions.

Before the opening race of the weekend got underway, at 15.00 local time, Lowes had finished a strong third in Superpole Qualifying. He had led this specialised test of sheer pace over a single lap until there were only two minutes left to go in the session.

Third in Superpole was still Lowes’ best qualifying performance on the bimota KB998 Rimini in its debut WorldSBK season, and matched his team-mate Bassani’s front row qualifying performance at Misano during the previous round.

Alex was leading the opening race when he suddenly lost the front on the fast left hand corner at the Craner Curves section of the 4.023km long Donington Park circuit. He was unable to continue and was taken to the medical centre for precautionary checks. He was diagnosed with a left ankle contusion but was declared fit to race on Sunday.

Bassani was 18th in Superpole Qualifying and was looking to make up places in the early laps of the 23-lap race. He would fall on lap nine, at Turn One, while in 13th position. Axel would restart to finish 16th in the final results and gain some more valuable data to help with the set-up for Sunday’s races.

The final day of WorldSBK action at Donington will comprise of a ten-lap Superpole Race before the second 23-lap Race Two takes place to end the competitive element of the Donington weekend.

Alex Lowes stated: “We changed the set-up a bit after yesterday’s long run and I felt really good on the bike. Superpole Qualifying was great and I joined the ‘1’24 club’ with my best lap time around Donington, and I qualified on the front row for the first time this year. In the race, because we had done the work during a long run yesterday, I was quite confident. Too confident, obviously. I feel best on this bike when we have space and we can ride our own lines. Toprak was out front, managing the race, so I thought I should pass him, then maybe I could do a few laps in font and stay with him if he came back ahead. This was my target in my head to gain a good result. Obviously I pushed a little bit too much. I need to check the data to understand a bit more. It didn’t feel like I had done anything crazy from my side, but I think it was a case of already riding on the limit, and then went over it a little bit. It was a shame because it was a chance to fight for a home podium. We will try again tomorrow.”

Axel Bassani stated: “That was a very difficult race. Starting from the first lap I lost a lot of time with the front locking a lot, then on lap eight or nine I went completely straight into the first corner, then went down in the gravel. I had tried to stop but I was going directly to the barrier. I restarted to try and take some data for Sunday, but the feeling with the bike set-up was not really good. Alex crashed in a really fast corner and I hope he is OK. He was having a really good race but we know we are on the limit so to crash sometimes in part of the game. I hope tomorrow we can improve.”