Strong First Day Placings For ...

After two opening day Free Practice sessions at the Autodrom Most the bimota by Kawasaki Racing Team (BbKRT) pairing of Alex Lowes and Axel Bassani were ranked fifth and seventh, respectively, in the combined time sheets.

Cool but dry track conditions were encountered by the bimota by Kawasaki Racing Team riders in what were the traditional two Friday Free Practice sessions at the 4.212km long hillside circuit of Most.

Lowes found early misfortune when he crashed out early in FP1, but a highly professional effort from all the BbKRT technical staff got Alex back out on track. Lowes ended up fifth in the combined practice times at the end of the day.

Bassani was happy with many elements of his bike set-up from the start of the on-track action and ended up completing a ‘long run’ to test out his bike and tyre performance before he begins racing for real on Saturday 16 May.

Both riders feel that they can find even more set-up improvements in the short FP3 session before Superpole Qualifying. After the grid places are allocated, a 22-lap Race One will take place at the characterful Most circuit. On Sunday, the traditional ten-lap ‘sprint race’ and a final 22-lap Race Two will complete the Most race action for Lowes and Bassani.

Alex Lowes stated: “I enjoyed FP2, so I am looking forward to tomorrow. I think I can make some good progress on Saturday if it is dry. I always like to go out and be quite fast, but I was obviously a bit excited this morning in FP1 and crashed. It is not like I was going crazy fast, but maybe I was going too fast for the conditions. Thanks to all the team as they rebuilt the bike, and also Axel’s mechanics were helping a lot, so I appreciate that. In FP2, the bike felt quite good. We tried a couple of things with the bike and also two tyres from Pirelli. After FP2, I felt like I was OK, and even though I missed some of the morning session, I was quite competitive.”

Axel Bassani stated: “Friday has been quite positive, and we worked a lot. From the beginning of FP1, the feeling with the bike was good. In FP2, we did a long run. We still have to work a little bit, as we are missing something after some laps. We have ideas about the areas we can work tomorrow, and we are happy after the first day. We will continue to work and try to be as consistent and as fast as possible on Saturday.”