Alex Lowes provided encouraging feedback after riding the Bimota at the Portimao WorldSBK test.
The WorldSBK paddock took to the Autodromo Internacional do Algarve for two days of testing ahead of the race weekend, scheduled for 28th-30th March.
The Italian marque re-entered the series to work with Kawasaki on its latest bike, with both riders posting impressive results and finishing in the top ten in each race.
Like in pre-season, the weather disrupted proceedings on both days which saw both riders face reduced time on track.
Despite these challenges, the Lincolnshire-born star in particular was in an optimistic frame of mind following the two days.
“Today, [Saturday] I felt good on the bike,” Lowes reacted to WorldSBK.
“Honestly these two days have probably been the best I’ve felt so far on the Bimota, which is positive and normal as we’re learning and improving it all the time.
“It’s a little bit of a shame about the weather as we’re still testing items rather than focusing on track-specific settings.
“I wanted to do a long run and we had quite a few things on the schedule but you can’t change the weather, so I enjoyed it, the guys did a fantastic job and we’re slowly improving.”
Lowes revealed his assignments for the day and pushed through the tough conditions to try and find the right setup.
“Today’s [Saurday’s] agenda, a lot of the focus was on the front of the bike. Geometry settings we hadn’t been able to explore, different stiffnesses on the front, some positive, some negative.
“I think we only managed 35-40 laps, [45 laps] so that was all we managed to get through. The main takeaway for the test was an improved feeling on the front of the bike, that was my target after Philip Island where I didn’t feel like I could pass the other riders, so that was a positive.
“The negative is I still need to improve the rear grip, especially on the fresh tires, I feel like from lap 10 onwards we’re really strong but we’re missing that initial lap time.”
Axel Bassani admits he doesn’t have a ‘really good feeling’ on Bimota
Despite Lowes’ positive summary, Bassani on the other side of the garage, admitted that he has yet to find a “really good feeling” riding the KB998 Rimini.
The Italian finished Day 1 in eighth place after posting his strongest lap time of 1.41.672s, before bettering the time on Day 2 with a 1.41.049s.
Despite this notable improvement, he finished the session 1.5s adrift from session leader Toprak Razgatlioglu.
“It’s been two strange days of testing due to the weather, like always,” he said to WorldSBK.
“We had to do a lot of work in not many hours, but we tried to check all the items we wanted to try.
“It’s been quite intense. Honestly, I finished the test without a really good feeling so I don’t know how the Portimao round will go.
“We have to work a lot. At the moment, I don’t feel really fast, and I hope to feel better during the race weekend.”
