Lowes Top Six On Day One At Ma...

On the first day of the season restart after a long summer break, bimota by Kawasaki Racing Team rider Alex Lowes finished in overall sixth place. His BbKRT team-mate, Axel Bassani, was 17th.

Friday 5 September at Magny Cours proved to be dry and occasionally sunny, allowing the WorldSBK teams and riders who were returning to competitive action for the first time since late July to work on their machine set-ups in relatively consistent conditions.

A recent test at Motorland Aragon had allowed the BbKRT team to make some early preparations for this round, as well as finding a base set-up for a return to Aragon at the next round.

Lowes got down to work at Magny Cours at a strong pace from the start, with the new-for 2025 bimota KB998 Rimini proving to be effective around Magny Cours’ many varieties of corners and bends.

An eventual sixth place in the combined timesheets on the opening day puts Lowes in a good position to go for even more on Saturday, when a final FP3 session will precede Superpole Qualifying.

Bassani placed an overall 17th on day one, as he and his crew looked for set-up improvements which would allow Axel to move into a stronger starting position before the opening race of the ninth round.

After Superpole Qualifying on Saturday 6 September, Race One will take place at 14.00 local time in France, over a scheduled 21 laps.

Alex Lowes stated: “Today was pretty good and I think I can be a bit better tomorrow. We had two good sessions, the weather has been nice to us, we did a lot of laps and have plenty of data. I enjoyed it, I felt that my pace was pretty good and we can be quite happy with our day’s work. I am looking forward to getting back to racing on Saturday after the summer break. At some tracks, like Misano, Donington Park, or here at Magny Cours, there are some chances for us in certain parts of the track to use the strengths of the new BK998 Rimini and try to be in the mix. We have to make sure that we are using the strengths we have.”

Axel Bassani stated: “It was a quite difficult first day and we tried some things during the two free practice sessions. We improved a lot from FP1, something like 1.5 seconds. It is not enough as we are towards the back with our overall position. We will work hard for Saturday and try to improve something, especially for our race pace.”