Top Three For Lowes On Day One

The bimota by Kawasaki Racing Team duo of Alex Lowes and Axel Bassani faced a day of changing track conditions at the start of the fifth round of the WorldSBK championship in Czechia. Alex ended the opening day at the Autodrom Most with the third quickest time overall while Axel was seventh fastest.

A series of individual crashes involving some top riders saw four red flag stoppages take place during the FP1 session in the morning, which was held in challenging track conditions - thanks to occasional wet weather and a track surface that was not yet delivering optimal grip conditions even in the drier areas. FP2, which was held in the afternoon, also started on a damp track surface in some areas.

Both BbKRT riders opted to miss the beginning of the FP2 session for this reason but when they did take to the track they each found some improvements in the set-up of their bimota KB998 Rimini machines.

Alex delivered a strong lap time in FP2 to end up third quickest on the opening day, with Axel seventh overall.

Superpole Qualifying, which gets underway on Saturday 17 May at the 4.212km long Autodrom Most, will take place before the first 22-lap WorldSBK race. Sunday 18 May hosts two more points-scoring contests - the Superpole ‘sprint’ race and the final 22-lap Race Two.

Alex Lowes stated: “It was a strange day - raining then not raining and with some damp patches around. In this morning’s FP1 session there were several red flags after some crashes. FP2 started in slightly damp conditions, so we tried to let things improve before I rode in the last part of the session. It was positive. I feel quite good on the bike, especially in the middle part of the lap. It was working well and handling well. We just used one set of tyres this afternoon. After the first two sessions at Most on the bimota KB998 Rimini we have a lot of information to analyse and check for Saturday. The important thing now is to make that step forward for FP3 and then Superpole, before the start of Race One.”

Axel Bassani stated: “FP1 was quite difficult, with four red flag stoppages. Also, we lost 15-20 minutes in the beginning because the track was half wet/half dry. Honestly, we did not have a lot of time to work today, but this afternoon in FP2 we tried something as I need to improve the feeling with the rear, as it is not perfect. We did some laps and the pace was not bad. We will see tomorrow and I hope we have enough data from today to try to understand what I need for tomorrow.”