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Solid BbKRT Results Wrap Up The Portimao Weekend
The final day of race action at the Portimao WorldSBK round saw bimota by Kawasaki Racing Team riders, Alex Lowes and Axel Bassani, leave with two fourth-place finishes and two eighth-place finishes respectively.
Sunday, March 29, delivered yet another warm and sunny day for all at Portimao to enjoy, with two WorldSBK races left to run at the 4.592km Portuguese circuit.
In the 10 Lap Tissot Superpole Race, Lowes was eventually fourth, and just 0.380 seconds from a podium finish. Lowes had put himself into third place at one stage before ending up fourth in what was an intense 10 Lap contest in front of a strong local crowd.
In the second full-distance Race 2, run over 20 laps, Lowes finished an even closer 0.169 seconds from third position, and was slightly frustrated to not quite be able to challenge for the final podium placing exiting the final corner onto the main straight.
Bassani, from a 10th-place starting position, finished the Superpole Race in eighth position. He would repeat that eighth place in Race 2, but only after losing two positions late in the race due to a drop in tire grip.
When looking at the results of all three WorldSBK races at Portimao, Lowes scored three fourth-place race results, and Bassani took three eighth-place finishes.
In the championship standings, after two rounds and six individual races, Bassani is now third overall, with 60 points. Lowes has moved up to fifth place, with 48 points.
Now that the Portimao round is complete, the next round will take place in northern Europe, at the classic Assen TT track, between April 17 and 19.
“Yesterday I was sort of happy with fourth place, because I was a bit away from the podium. Today, to be so close, but not really have a proper attack for the podium, was a bit frustrating. After Australia, which is such a peculiar track, we may have felt like it was a bit closer and that we had made more of a step. This weekend we needed to make a good qualifying, have a good start and be on the limit every lap to be in a position to challenge for the podium, which the bike does allow you to do. The strong part of the bike is that it is easier to ride, so you can ride it hard for 20 laps and put it in good positions in the tighter parts of the track. But, to race the bike, we are still missing a bit of performance. We made a change on the front of the bike for the Sunday races so I had a bit more confidence in stopping the bike. I tried my best, and honestly, I enjoyed riding the KB998 Rimini. I think we did a good job but we can’t be really happy with fourth place, as we want to try to get a bit closer.”
- Alex Lowes
“It has been a hard weekend and not like it was in Australia at the first round. Things were a little bit difficult, but in the end we have been quite consistent, always inside the Top 10. In the Superpole Race, we recovered two positions and finished in eighth. In Race 2, the pace was quite good until six laps from the end, when I had a big drop from both tires, front and rear. It was very difficult for me to push in the same way, and I lost two positions, going from sixth to eighth. I was not really happy, but in the end, after checking everything, I have to be happy because I was in eighth in all the races. It would have been really easy to crash today, but we finished the races. So, we have to be positive and now try to focus on Assen.”
- Axel Bassani
