Assen’s ‘Cathedral of Speed’ as always brought another instalment of dramatic final overtakes and vintage MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship action. bimota by Kawasaki Racing Team put up another on-target result, more positive news especially for rider Axel Bassani (bimota by Kawasaki Racing Team), who achieved for the team their best race result so far in their return season. Alex Lowes wasn’t far behind, as with his Race 2 P6, he achieved his best personal result of the season.
Bassani on Race 2 – “arriving to the finish line in the top five in WorldSBK is not easy, the level is super high.”
Among the brightest spots on the weekend at Assen for Bimota was the steps being taken by Bassani. The young rider seemed to be struggling with the adaptation to the KB998 Rimini more than his teammate Lowes in preseason testing, however, since the season’s start in February at Phillip Island, Bassani has upped his game, and finds himself ahead of Lowes in the Championship standings, in part due to a pair of unfortunate DNF’s at Portimao for the #22. Seen in this weekend’s results, what Bassani has stepped up the most of all, has been his results in Superpole events, what used to be a weak point for him, in Assen was his strong suit, if he can keep up this trend he will help bring Bimota closer to the front of the pack.
On his weekend and looking ahead to Cremona, Bassani said, “I’m really happy, especially for Bimota, because arriving to the finish line in the top five in WorldSBK is not easy, the level is super high. Yesterday I tried to get into the top five maybe too much, I went down in the last lap, but today I did, so I’m really happy and we will see in the next races to come. Looking forward, in Cremona I hope to have a good weekend, usually we have a lot of fans there, it’s always nice to race well in front of them. I will do my best, it will be our first ever time with a Bimota at Cremona, so I don’t know what to expect, but I think we can do a good job. Today we found something on the bike that is working so I have a good feeling!”
“Both bikes inside the top six is a pretty good way to end the weekend” – Lowes encouraged after Assen’s progress
Alex Lowes had a positive weekend of his own at Assen, in Race 2, Lowes showed the class he so often exhibited in years prior atop a Kawasaki, gliding his way up the grid from his original start position of P12. Coming out on top after a multi-rider fight involving Iker Lecuona (Honda HRC) and defending Riders’ Champion Toprak Razgatlioglu, (ROKiT BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team) Lowes was able to claim P6 for his best result of the season.
“The second Sunday race was good. Starting further back was not easy. In the first ten laps I got blocked a bit and but I knew that I could go faster than the pace I was showing. By the second half of the race I was trying to manage things, be smooth in my riding and at the end it was not too bad. I managed to pass a couple of guys in the last laps, so that was good. There is still some work to do. Well done to Axel and his guys – and to have both bikes inside the top six after a sometimes-difficult weekend is a pretty good way to end. On to the next race now.” Said the #22
Follow the Bimota boys next time around at Cremona May 2nd-May 4th with the WorldSBK VideoPass!
Source: WorldSBK.com