Just a couple of days after the MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship visited MotorLand Aragon, Axel Bassani (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK) was on track again. He and the team ventured across Spain to the Circuito de Jerez – Angel Nieto for two days of testing, with Bassani the sole KRT rider on track. Alex Lowes did not test as he continues to recover following his Tissot Superpole Race crash at Aragon.

Conditions were very hot in Andalusia, with air temperatures around 35 degrees Celsius and track temperatures peaking around 15 degrees higher. With the incredibly hot conditions, the #47 was limited to 120 laps by his team but he was still able to work on both race pace and one-lap pace. KRT reported that Bassani was ‘even faster’ than when he tested with the team at Jerez in January.

It was good preparation for the season finale which takes place at the same circuit in a few weeks, although conditions may differ between the test and the round. It will be Bassani’s first race weekend on the ZX-10RR machine at Jerez but with tests at the start of the year and now a test not long before the round, he’ll feel confident heading into the round.

Reflecting on the test, the Italian rider said “We have now finished two days of hard testing, which we started very soon after the previous round in MotorLand Aragon. Physically, it has not been so easy because we had a race weekend so recently. But they worked a lot and worked well to try to improve the bike in these hot conditions. We improved in some areas, and I am happy with what we did together in the team. I have to thank all the guys for the big effort they put in over these two days. I think we went in a good direction and now we can relax a bit before we head to the next round in Estoril.”

His Crew Chief, Marcel Duinker, added: “It was an interesting test because, especially today, it was hot. Really hot. That made it very suitable to help us work towards race weekend, but at the same time, it helped us understand the other areas we needed to improve in. That’s what we did, and it was also interesting because Axel was faster in the 50°C track temperatures than he had been in winter testing at Jerez. Axel was riding with a lot of confidence on both race and Q tyres, and he was really on top of his job. We did what we needed to do, so we will be ready not just for the Jerez race weekend, but also the next round at Estoril.”

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Source: WorldSBK.com