Under a sunny sky at Motorland on Sunday 29 September Lowes was competing inside the top few position when he fell between T1-T2 on the third lap of the ten Lap Superpole race. Pushed wide and then passed by other riders in the early stages, he had made up one position and was intent on staying with the leading group.
Suffering a rear slide that caused a shallow highside, Alex finally slid off the track to the left and re-injured his already damaged left calf. The pain and lack of movement in his lower left leg, from a new contusion and a haematoma, saw him declared unfit for Race Two.
Axel’s Superpole race saw him finish in 15th place, but not score points given the special short format of the ten lap ‘sprint’ races. Bassani would fight again in Race Two and finish 12th, as he had done in the opening race on Saturday.
Alex is now fifth in the championship standings with 264 points while Axel is 15th overall, with 88 points.
With the Motorland Aragon race weekend now complete the KRT squad is currently heading for a two day test session at Jerez, in southern Spain, to be held between 1-2 October.
Estoril in Portugal and finally Jerez in Spain will round out the 12-round WorldSBK season, with the next round in Estoril taking place between 11-13 October.
Alex Lowes, stated: “Not the Sunday we had hoped for. I was quite happy with the bike in warm-up this morning, after we had made some small changes. We were going to race with the SC1 softer tyre, because yesterday I felt we missed a bit of turning. The bike felt great in the first laps of the Superpole race. I got a good start but then Toprak put me out a little bit and I had to make some passes to come back. I was quick and I was hoping to have a good pace. Unfortunately, we were on the limit, maybe pushing over our limit probably with the package this weekend, and it just bit me coming out of T1. It was a nasty little crash and I took quite an impact on the leg. The focus now is to recover for Estoril and finish as well as we can in the final two rounds of the season.”
Axel Bassani, stated: “Race Two was a difficult one and it is not easy for us to overtake and recover some positions. But, I tried to run my best pace and see if I could arrive between 10th and 15th position. It was difficult to do but at the moment this is the best that we could achieve. We will continue to work and try to improve. The team is working hard to find a way to make things better.”
Tito Rabat (Kawasaki Puccetti Racing) placed 17th in each race on Sunday at his home round and is ranked 20th overall.
2024 KRT Rider WorldSBK Statistics
Alex Lowes:
2024: Races: 29, Wins 2, Podiums 11, Superpoles 1
Career Race Wins: 4 (3 for Kawasaki)
Career Podiums: 45 (25 for Kawasaki)
Career Poles: 2 (1 for Kawasaki)
Axel Bassani:
2024: Races: 30, Wins 0, Podiums 0, Superpoles 0
Career Race Wins: 0 (0 for Kawasaki)
Career Podiums: 6 (0 for Kawasaki)
Career Poles: 0 (0 for Kawasaki)
8 x Riders’ Championships (Scott Russell 1993, Tom Sykes 2013, Jonathan Rea 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019 & 2020), 1 x EVO Riders’ Championship (David Salom 2014)
6 x Manufacturers’ Championships (Ninja ZX-10R 2015 & 2016, Ninja ZX-10RR 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020)
5 x Teams’ Championships (KRT/Provec Racing 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018 & 2019)
Kawasaki FIM Superbike World Championship Statistics
Total Kawasaki Race Wins: 180 – second overall
Total Kawasaki Podiums: 553 – second overall
Total Kawasaki Poles: 109 – second overall
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