Lowes Takes Fourth Place In Race One

The first race of the Motorland Aragon race weekend got underway at 14.00 on Saturday, 30 May, and the top BbKRT result proved to be a determined fourth from Alex Lowes. Axel Bassani was eighth on his bimota KB998 Rimini machine.

The unusually hot conditions for this time of year in Spain continued on the second day of the sixth round of the 2026 FIM Superbike World Championship. It was a little less extreme than Friday, but Race One was still run in ambient temperatures of 30°C and track temperatures of 48°C.

Bassani was the fastest rider in the early morning FP1 session, boosting his confidence before the start of Superpole qualifying.

Superpole was held at 11.15 in the morning. Lowes finished a strong fifth and Bassani a determined tenth. After the third fastest rider was relegated to the last place on the Race One starting grid (the consequence of committing a yellow flag procedure infringement), all the riders from fourth place down moved up one place on the grid. This kept Alex on row two but moved Axel up from the fourth to the third row.

At the beginning of Race One, both bimota riders quickly moved forward with Lowes into third place for a lap and Bassani soon gaining two track positions.

Lowes would have to give up second to his brother Sam early on, but Alex rode at such a consistently fast pace that he secured the first off-podium finishing position, ending an eventually lonely ride to fourth place.

For Axel, there was more of a race-long fight at the 5.077km long track with other riders. Bassani tried to run down Yari Montella for a time but also had to work hard to keep the Kawasaki Ninja ZX-10RR of Garrett Gerloff behind him in the run-in to the flag. Axel would take an eighth place as a reward for his efforts.

With the Race One action now complete, Sunday 31 May will feature a short ten-lap Superpole Race and then the final 18-lap Race Two. The last Motorland WorldSBK race is scheduled to start at 15.30.

Alex Lowes, stated: “Honestly, that was a really good ride in Race One. We tried a lot of things this early weekend, with my riding position, but the bike was moving a lot. Today we went back to our standard setting in the morning and we had a good Superpole Qualifying. Iker Lecuona let me get in behind him, so thank you to him. I had a good start and I think I did a good job in the race to stay consistent, keep my pace, but to be 16 seconds behind the race winner is not ideal. I felt like I rode well and didn’t miss an apex. I am happy with fourth and we will work hard tonight to try to be a bit better for tomorrow.”

Axel Bassani, stated: “Early this morning was really good because I finished P1 in the FP3 session. In Superpole Qualifying we had some issues with the traffic and I was not able to use the soft tyre in the correct way. We started from P9 and we tried something on the front, with a different tyre option, but it was not working. I thought that in the end of the race it would be helping me but it did not work. I tried to stay consistent and we finished eighth, so we got some points. Now we will work for Race Two to make a step and try to stay nearer the front.”