In the ten lap ‘sprint’ Lowes went from ninth on the grid to sixth at the flag, which earned his some more championship points and important second row starting position for Race Two. Bassani was 12th in the Superpole Race, starting Race Two from tenth place.

Sunday’s opening race saw Niccolo Bulega win from long time leader Toprak Razgatlioglu and in the process recording the closest ever margin of victory in WorldSBK history, at just 0.003 seconds.

The classic Estoril circuit then hosted Race Two at the end of what had turned out to be a dry and sunny Sunday, which was welcomed by all as poor weather had negatively affected each previous day.

Alex was confident of a strong finish in the final 21-lap race but incidents with two other riders negatively affected his final results. He was run off track in the second incident and that pushed him down from ninth place to almost last. A battling recovery saw him finish 12th.

Bassani had the best Kawasaki result in Race Two, taking tenth place after 21 intense laps of the 4.182km long circuit near the Atlantic coast of Portugal.

With one more round to go Lowes is fifth in the championship, with 285 points. He is guaranteed to finish no lower than top five in the championship now, but is still only six points behind the fourth placed rider, with three points-scoring opportunities left. Axel is 15th overall, with 94 points.

In a few days the Spanish venue of the Circuito de Jerez - Angel Nieto will host the finale of the 2024 championship, between 18-20 October.

Alex Lowes, stated: “The Superpole race was good and we were on the harder option of rear tyre. I thought Danilo Petrucci’s tyre would drop a bit more, but it hooked up right to the end. That made it quite difficult, but I was happy with the speed we had in that race. To be in the top six round here was positive for us and I thought we could have done that again in Race Two. Vierge hit me on the first lap of the final race, after we arrived at T6. He was a lot faster than me, which means his braking markers were different. He braked earlier than I expected him to, which put me off a little bit. Then Iannone just ran me off the track. I was trying really hard not to go into the gravel but the back end just dropped in. My speed was good enough to fight for fourth place, which was positive. It’s a shame because I didn’t make a mistake today but Race Two got ruined by someone else. That’s how it is, so we will take the positive points and look forward to Jerez.”

Axel Bassani, stated: “A sunny Sunday in Estoril but the Superpole race was quite difficult. The pace at the beginning was not bad, and I was in ninth position. On the last three laps I had a little bit of a problem with my arms, as the bike started to feel a little bit too heavy. That was my pace set from then on so I finished in 12th position. Race Two was difficult from the beginning as I started to slide really hard with the rear. I tried to manage this and keep my best pace. We finished inside the top ten which was also good, as we took some points. Thanks to the team for a big job this weekend and now we go to Jerez for the final round of the year, which I hope to enjoy.”

Tito Rabat (Kawasaki Puccetti Racing) was 17th in the Superpole Race but was forced to retire from Race Two. He is still 20th in the championship, now with 22 points.

2024 KRT Rider WorldSBK Statistics

Alex Lowes:
2024: Races: 32, 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: 33, 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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