Top Six For Battling Lowes at ...

The first race of the FIM Superbike World Championship race weekend in Hungary saw Alex Lowes take his bimota KB998 Rimini machine from tenth on the grid to sixth at the chequered flag, after 21 laps of the unique Balaton Park circuit layout. Axel Bassani (BbKRT) was on his way to a top ten finish until he ran off track and dropped out of the points-scoring places.

The weather was in co-operative mood once again at Balaton and provided good track conditions for all the WorldSBK teams and riders as they entered the first raceday of the weekend.

Superpole Qualifying on Saturday morning proved to be a tough challenge for both BbKRT entries, with Lowes in tenth place and Bassani 15th. These results saw Alex start from the fourth row of the Race One grid and Axel launch from row five.

In the race itself, Lowes made up instant positions to go from tenth to seventh at the end of lap one. Competing effectively and determinedly around the 4.075km long circuit, Alex worked his way up to sixth on lap seven, then fifth on lap 11. He would only lose a top five finish on the penultimate lap, ending Race One in sixth place.

Axel also made early progress after the start, going up to 11th position in the middle of the long and very busy race. He had just moved into the top ten on the final lap when he ran off track after hitting a trackside kerb and almost crashing out. He recovered to finish the race, but out of the points in 17th position.

The final day of track action at Balaton gets underway on Sunday, 3 May, and features a morning warm-up session - then a ten-lap Superpole Race and a 21-lap Race Two, with the potential for championship points in each race.

Alex Lowes stated: “This track probably does not suit us as much as some of the others. It is hard to be overly happy with P6, but I was, let’s say, riding the bike on the limit. I was playing with the bike, the front was moving, and I felt I was maximising pretty much every lap. I was disappointed to lose fifth place at the end to Bautista, but in the last few laps, he was one of the fastest on track. I was really trying to defend, but it was not to be today. We will take that result. We learned a lot about the bike, and we made some decent changes for the race today. We are going to try and improve it a little bit for tomorrow.”

Axel Bassani stated: “That was quite a difficult race, but we were there fighting for a top ten finish. I got into the top ten, but on the last lap, between T7 and T8, I touched the kerb and completely lost the front. I saved it - I don’t know how - but I saved it. I went off track, and that put us out of the top ten. I got back on track but finally we scored no points. In the end, I am trying to be positive. We will try our maximum on Sunday to try and finish our weekend in the best way possible.”