Alex Lowes makes progress at Italian WorldSBK: “Starting in 16th place, you need luck”

If Nicolo Bulega gave Ducati a perfect home round at the Italian WorldSBK, for Bimota the races at Cremona were more complicated.

Axel Bassani scored the only top-10 of the weekend for the two factory KB998 machines, but Alex Lowes was able to make progress throughout the weekend, especially from Saturday to Sunday, ultimately finishing only a couple of tenths behind 10th-placed Remy Gardner in Race 2 despite starting 16th after a difficult Superpole Race.

“Obviously, we would have liked to have finished a bit further up, but the final race of the weekend was pretty good,” Lowes said after Race 2 at the Italian Round.

“Starting from 16th place, you have to have a bit of luck in the first laps to get a good track position. But I rode the whole race the best I could.

“I was feeling strong and I managed to gain four or five places. My best lap was actually the last lap.”

Lowes added that he’d been able to make progress with his front confidence for Sunday compared to Saturday’s Superpole and Race 1.

“The feeling on the front was a good step compared to yesterday,” he said.

“I keep saying this, but it is so tight in WorldSBK now that you need a perfect weekend to qualify well, start in that position and fight for the top five. On the first weekend here with the new bike, we were on the back foot a little bit. Hopefully, in the next races we can start Friday practice a bit stronger.

“But, we made progress all weekend here and that is all that you can do.”

Bassani: “One day does not define who you are”

Lowes’ Bimota teammate, Axel Bassani, was more downbeat after a “really difficult” Sunday at a home World Superbike round which saw the Italian go 9-18-15 across the three races.

“Sunday in Cremona has been a really difficult day, which can happen,” he said.

“Starting in warm-up this morning, I did quite a good lap, but the feeling with the bike setup was not really good.

“In the Superpole race, I had big problems to stop the bike, so I started to lose a lot of positions. In the short races, when you are not okay, you are all together, so it is really easy to lose positions.

“In Race 2, I started to have problems with the rear and the front. I tried to control it and rode to the end, but the feeling was not really good.

“I think it was not a good day, which can happen in life. For sure, one day does not define who you are, but it is part of the game. See you at the next race.”