Superb Podium Result For Lowes...

The bimota by Kawasaki Racing Team secured a second podium finish in the first WorldSBK season for the bimota KB998 Rimini, after Alex Lowes rode from fourth place on the Race One grid to an eventual third place. Axel Bassani took his BbKRT machine to a fighting seventh place.

Before the first race of the Magny Cours weekend got underway at 14.00 local time, the intense Superpole Qualifying session - which determines grid positions for the opening races - got underway under clear and sunny skies.

Alex was in strong form, leading the session for a short time and only being displaced to fourth place right at the end of the session. Axel and his crew had found an improved set-up entering Superpole and moved up to take a tenth place starting position.

Race One got underway in almost perfect conditions, allowing eventual race winner Toprak Razgatlioglu to take an immediate lead and set a new lap record on his way to the win.

Lowes made a great start from the line and almost immediately a bold move to get into second place, for a time. He chased Razgatlioglu for as long as he could and was only passed by eventual second place rider, Nicolo Bulega.

Lowes and his crew had found a good set-up to take on the challenge of the highly varied 4.411km long French circuit, and once riding on his own he could keep up a good pace, even closing in on Bulega in the middle of the race until it was clear he could not catch him before the end.

Firmly focused on a podium result, Alex concentrated on having as clean a race as possible, and finishing in a confident third place. He was almost seven seconds ahead of the fourth-placed rider after all 21 laps had been completed.

Bassani had both good fortune and some issues to deal with during his opening race to seventh place. Thanks to his determined top ten finish, he took away a strong haul of championship points, which pushed him up the points table to ninth, with two more races to go in Magny Cours.

Axel had some traction issues with the rear, which also affected his braking performance, but he rode as efficiently as possible to take an eighth-place finish. Several riders in front of him had clashed at Turn 13 on lap two, giving the Italian rider some immediate track positions and extra space to work in as he aimed for a positive finishing position.

A ten-lap WorldSBK Superpole Race, and then a final 21-lap WorldSBK Race Two, will take place on Sunday, 7 September, to complete the WorldSBK action at the French round.

Alex Lowes stated: “I knew I had the chance to maybe finish fourth in the opening race, but I had quite good speed in the middle of the race. I started to catch Nicolo Bulega a little bit. That kept me in a position of still going fast, so that helped me a lot. We know that when you ride by yourself, you can be fast on the KB998 Rimini on used tyres. I was a little bit concerned in the first couple of laps because in Donington I had good pace and was a bit excited at the start of the race. I made a mistake, so today I tried to ride without mistakes and get a podium. At Misano, Donington and here, we have been really strong. Even in Most, we scored a good fourth place. But in Hungary, last time out, the track layout has been against us. Many things need to go well to get the final results, but I enjoyed it today, and I was happy for the podium. I am happy for all the guys. Everyone works hard, but to be in a new project, there is a lot of hard work, a lot of stress, and not just from my side of the garage but the other side and the whole team. I appreciate that a lot, so it’s nice to get some results to pay them back a little.”

Axel Bassani stated: “We had quite a good day and Superpole was good. We only got one fast lap in during Superpole because we went out too late on the second tyre. The race was nice but we were also lucky because five riders crashed in front of us, so we recovered a lot of positions and finished seventh. We had some problems with the rear because it was impossible to open the throttle and I was sliding a lot. To stop the bike was also difficult, but we finished in a good position. Now we will try to make some more steps forward and try to recover some positions for Sunday’s races.”