Lowes Fastest At Shortened Portimao Tests

Alex Lowes secured the fastest lap time of a well-attended test session at the Autodromo Internacional do Algarve in Portugal, which was held between 9-10 March.

In what was planned to be a two-day test, Lowes set the fastest overall time of 1’40.622 in the very first session, on Monday 9 March. Lowes’ team-mate Axel Bassani placed eighth overall, with a best time of 1’41.554.

Lowes’ best pace proved to be half a second quicker than the next rider, Nicolo Bulega (Ducati), before the weather closed in once more and the track surface became wet.

After those rains arrived at lunchtime on the first day the hope was that the weather conditions would improve on day two. Unfortunately, rain reappeared on the final morning, and BbKRT decided not to take to the track again in wet conditions.

Given this unexpected loss of testing time, especially after a winter test programme that was often affected by bad weather, BbKRT has rescheduled its workflow to take part in a one-day test session at Portimao on Friday 13 March, when the weather forecast appears to be more positive.

The next competitive on-track action for BbKRT and the official bimota KB998 Rimini machine will be the Portimao race weekend, which will be held between 27-29 March.

Alex Lowes, stated: “I felt good on day one on the bike. It was nice to get back out on track in Europe after the opening round in Australia. We were quite strong and quite quick in the dry there, and also here in Portimao from the first laps. We continued our work from the winter tests and it was positive. I had good confidence. We had just started to try some things on the bike, and then it rained. So, we didn’t get the chance to really test things. It was nice to be here again because we have not had the chance to ride at Portimao since the race last year, so it was nice to see the evolution of the KB998 Rimini. We have plenty of things to try to get prepared for the race weekend at Portimao.”

Axel Bassani, stated: “On day one we did about 29-30 laps and we tried some things in dry conditions. So, we have been lucky. We worked a little bit on the set-up for the race and a lot on the electronics side. Then we had some bad weather. This year we have been really unlucky with the weather and only the two days in Australia were really good. It has been the same for everyone, but in general it is not the best for the riders. We need more time to work on the bike and feel good. So, we have to keep working, stay positive and we will see how it goes in the next days.”