Strong Opening Day For BbKRT A...

Despite having never ridden at the Circuito Estoril on the bimota KB998 Rimini, Alex Lowes and Axel Bassani finished the opening day in third and fourth places in the combined free practice timesheets.

Dry weather allowed the bimota by Kawasaki Racing Team to set about their initial preparations for the penultimate round of the WorldSBK Championship in stable working conditions.

Having never tested or raced the KB998 at the 4.182km long circuit near Lisbon before the opening day of race weekend, the team relied on their base setting at the beginning of FP1. Lowes ended up third fastest and Bassani fifth after just one track session.

As the track surface went up to 40°C in FP2, each bimota rider improved their best time from the morning, which allowed Lowes to finish third fastest and Bassani fourth.

The difference in lap time between Alex and Axel in FP2 was only 0.053 seconds. Only the two remaining championship contenders, Nicolo Bulega and Toprak Razgatlioglu, were ahead of the BbKRT duo in the combined times.

The next task for the BbKRT squad is to make final adjustments in FP3 on Saturday, 11 October, before the Superpole Qualifying session determines each rider’s grid position for a 21-lap Race One on Saturday afternoon.

Alex Lowes stated: “That was a good opening day and I was pretty fast from the first laps. The confidence with the bike is good and in certain parts of the track it is working really well. We tried a new tyre from Pirelli this afternoon which had some positives and some negatives. In some parts of the track I am not very good but in other parts I am really strong, so I need to try to pull it all together for tomorrow. I think it has been a pretty good opening day.”

Axel Bassani stated: “It is the first time for the bimota KB998 Rimini here at Estoril and it is working quite well. In general, the bike is working well everywhere. Sometimes it is difficult to understand how to find the settings, but the bike itself is working. This is our reality. The track here only has one long straight, and after that you have to ride a lot, so that can help us. For the races, I think we are missing two or three tenths to fight for a top five so now we have to understand how to take these two or three tenths for tomorrow. It is not impossible but we have to do a step.”