The 4.182km circuit suffered from truly torrential levels of rainfall in the early hours of Friday, leaving a fully wet track surface in its wake. Estoril was shrouded in mist and grey clouds throughout the day, with rain showers coming and going.

Conditions had improved for the start of FP2, until drops of rain were reported in all sectors with just over 20 minutes of Friday track time left.

A heavier fall of rain shortly afterwards effectively ended the session prematurely, with all the riders having already set faster times than FP1, and no further chance to improve them on an increasingly wet track.

Declared fit to race even before the start of FP1 on Friday morning, having suffering a recent leg injury at the Motorland Aragon round, Lowes was back on good from the start. He finishing third fastest in the full-wet morning FP1 session, even after having a small crash in the inconsistent track conditions. Alex was pushing-on even more in the initially drier FP2 outing and finished third in the combined Friday times.

Axel eased his way into the Estoril action in what was his first experience at this circuit on his Ninja ZX-10RR. He ended his day seventh fastest overall, just over one second from fastest rider in the combined free practice sessions, Toprak Razgatlioglu.

Saturday 12 October will feature a final FP3 practice session, Tissot Superpole Qualifying and then a 21-lap Race One.

Alex Lowes, stated: “I got cleared to ride this morning and my leg is fine, which is good new after the Motorland Aragon injury. I felt OK on track today, even though I crashed in FP1. The conditions this morning meant that it was difficult to understand the limit. There were some strange crashes - and a lot of crashes. I was quite upright when I fell, so the track was not offering up a lot of grip. In the drier part of FP2 I felt OK with the bike, even thought the conditions were still not perfect. We couldn’t use the kerbs in some of the corners, and there was no rubber laid down on the track. When a bit more rain came we had to stop.”

Axel Bassani, stated: “A strange day in the wet conditions. The feeling with the rear was initially not very good so I was struggling a lot to find the correct grip levels. The lap time was not really good. But I think at the end we understood what to do in those conditions. In FP2, for three or four laps, it was like riding on ice, so we changed the tyre and we did a better lap time. I was inside the top ten at the end and this is important for us. I hope to continue in this way tomorrow. The weather is strange here, so there may be rain again. We will see.”

Tito Rabat (Kawasaki Puccetti Racing) placed 15th in FP2 and thus 15th in the overall ranking.

2024 KRT Rider WorldSBK Statistics

Alex Lowes:
2024: Races: 29, 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: 30, 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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