Bassani Secures His Best bimot...

The bimota by Kawasaki Racing Team took part in two WorldSBK races on the final day of action at Portimao, with the single best result coming from Axel Bassani. He fought his way to seventh in a red-flagged and restarted Race Two, which was finally held over a shorter-than-expected 11 laps.

The opening race of the final day at the second FIM Superbike Championship round in Portimao was a ten-lap Superpole ‘sprint’. After some intense morning action in warm weather conditions Bassani was 11th and his team-mate Alex Lowes 13th.

Axel made up some positions from his 14th place grid spot but Lowes had to work particularly hard to get up to 13th at the flag, having started from the final place on the grid once again after not being able to set a time in Superpole qualifying on Saturday 29 March.

The second Sunday race, and the final one in 2025 for the WorldSBK riders at the 4.592km long Autodromo Internacional do Algarve, was stopped at half race distance shortly after a rider fell and the track conditions were potentially compromised.

Instead of the scheduled 20-lap battle, Race Two at Portimao will go down in the official record as a stand-alone race of 11 laps in duration, but with full points awarded to the top 15 finishers.

Bassani and his team found an even better feel from his KB998 Rimini machine in Race Two, and after starting from eighth place on the grid he was able to fight hard and secure seventh place - which is his best result so far as a bimota rider.

Lowes had an unlucky restart after the red flag, trying a revised set-up but falling on lap one, at T12. He was unable to restart and left Portugal without adding to his championship points score from the opening round.

In the overall ranking after two rounds and six races, Bassani’s two points scoring rides at Portimao put him ninth overall, with 30 points. Alex is 13th, with 19 points to his credit.

Next up for the newest factory team in the WorldSBK championship will be an old favourite, the Assen round in the Netherlands, which will host the series between 11-13 April. This weekend will take place very shortly after the customer version of the bimota KB998 Rimini will be available, from April 9, in European bimota dealers.

Alex Lowes, stated: “We tried some things with the bike today, and I felt quite good. In the last race I made some positions before the red flag. We had a brief time to change the bike set-up again on the front. On the first lap of the restart I was in race mode, and made a couple of good passes on Aegerter and Montella. On the apex of T12 on the first lap, on full power, I closed the front - which I didn’t really expect because it is not a ‘normal’ place to crash. Maybe I was trying a bit too hard because we were starting further up the grid in the restart. Although we have had no results over the weekend my pace was not that bad. Maybe an opportunity was there and I was trying too hard. We have to learn from this weekend, our first one back in Europe with the bimota. Axel did a fantastic job in the last race and he was improving all weekend. Congratulations to him and his guys and I am sure the data will be useful for all the team. We will take the positive points and come back stronger in Assen.”

Axel Bassani, stated: “Today was quite good for my feeling with the bike, but when I got near the top ten it was really difficult for me to try to overtake because the race pace for everyone was quite similar. It was impossible for me to take the slipstream on the straight and attack, but it was quite a consistent Superpole Race. In Race Two, in the first part before the red flag, I was struggling a little bit with the front. After the restart it was immediately better and I was able to push like I wanted. I made a mistake in T1 and lost about a second and a half, but afterwards I recovered. I had a really good battle with Petrucci, which I enjoyed a lot, but it was not funny on the straight with him. But, the rest of the track was good. We leave Portimao with a good feeling, and we understood something on the bike. I hope we can start with this feeling in Assen next time.”