Just a few days after the completion of the Magny-Cours round of the WorldSBK championship Alex and Axel took to the racetrack once again at on their official Ninja ZX-10RR machines.

As well as preparing for the imminent Motorland round of the championship in late September (after a new WorldSBK adventure in Cremona one week before) this Aragon test continues the development journey of the Ninja ZX-10RR in order to take the best possible results across the final four rounds of the exciting 2024 season.

Even though there will be an official Bimota by KRT entry for Axel and Alex to compete with in 2025, and a different machine to ride, the Ninja ZX-10R will still be fielded in an official team run by the current Kawasaki Puccetti Racing team. This fact makes the Motorland test a step into the future for the WorldSBK-spec ZX-10RR, as well as an important period of preparation for the Motorland race weekend itself.

With the 5.077km long circuit having been recently re-surfaced this test presented a chance for KRT to understand the new asphalt before racing for real at Motorland between 27-29 September.
 
KRT encountered dry but windy conditions through the test. Even with this challenge to deal with both sides of the KRT garage made the best possible use of the available track time and will face the next round in Italy with enhanced confidence.

WorldSBK Round Nine will take place at Cremona, between 20-22 September. It will be the first of four rounds within a five week period before the season ends on 20 October.

Alex Lowes, stated: “Another positive test overall. We found challenging conditions with the wind but I felt good with the bike. We managed to try some different tyre combinations. I think tyre life could be an issue over race weekend, depending on the track temperature and conditions. The new surface is quite a lot different to the old surface. We collected some good information from two full race simulations, and we did a lot of laps. Now I am ready to go home, have a birthday weekend with the family and recharge the batteries ready for the back-to-back race weekends coming up shortly. Thanks to the team for their big effort in this past week.”

Axel Bassani, stated: “We have had two days on track at Aragon and we improved some parts on the bike. I think it has been a productive two days of testing. The new asphalt, for sure, has a lot of grip. We used the SCO tyre and once the SCX. This final afternoon there was increased wind but in general we worked a lot on the electronics and we also tried something new on the front. It was working well so I hope it will also be nice in Cremona. It has been a long two days because testing shortly after a race weekend it is never easy work. But, the team was good and we did a lot of laps. I am really happy about the work from the team and the improvements we found.”

Pere Riba, Crew Chief for Alex Lowes, stated: “We made a two day test that has been positive. We mostly focused on preparations for race weekend at Motorland. I think it has been a good to test because the track has a new surface a few months ago. It is completely different from before. It is very smooth and has no bumps, but it is very, very grippy. It is quite demanding in terms of high grip and we collected a lot of information about this. At the same time, we tried some items. Alex was one of the fastest riders, quite consistently. Now we are looking forward to going to Cremona and enjoying working with the guys in the team again.”

Marcel Duinker, Crew Chief for Axel Bassani, stated: “Overall, it was a good test. On day one we struggled a bit with the new and grippy track surface, which disturbed the previous bike balance. It took us a while to get used to it and make some small changes to the bike set-up. On Thursday morning we started off well and Axel was in good form. Straight away he went very fast on race tyres. We went through all our test items in the morning because we knew that the wind was going to pick up in the afternoon. It was more important to test some important material, so in the afternoon we made a race simulation. The only thing I can say is that Axel is improving every time he steps on the bike. He showed really, really good speed at this test. Axel is adapting and improving all the time and we improved our bike at this test. I am looking forward to Cremona.”

2024 KRT Rider WorldSBK Statistics

Alex Lowes:
2024: Races: 24, Wins 2, Podiums 10, Superpoles 1
Career Race Wins: 4 (3 for Kawasaki)
Career Podiums: 44 (24 for Kawasaki)
Career Poles: 2 (1 for Kawasaki)

Axel Bassani:
2024: Races: 24, 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: 552 – second overall
Total Kawasaki Poles: 109 – second overall

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