bimota by Kawasaki Racing Team (BbKRT) rider Alex Lowes concluded his first day in second position in the combined timesheets, while Axel Bassani was fourth fastest on his bimota KB998 Rimini machine.

A lot of preparation for the opening day of the latest WorldSBK campaign had been done during a two-day ‘PI’ test on Monday 16 and Tuesday 17 Feb. The tyre allocation for the race has, however, been modified since then, leading to some evaluation of the latest tyre option during free practice.

Each BbKRT rider improved their best times from FP1 to FP2, with Lowes setting a 1’29.345 and Bassani a 1’29.468. Nicolo Bulega was the fastest rider on Friday, by setting a 1’28.858. The race action was halted in FP2 for a time, after a wallaby crossed the track. After the restart, FP2 went to its full conclusion without further interruptions.

Now a third Free Practice session and then Tissot-Superpole Qualifying will take place on Saturday 20 February, shortly before the first 22-lap race of the season gets underway at 16.00 local time in Australia.

Alex Lowes stated: “We made a small change to the bike in the second session, and it was maybe not in the right direction. It was the first run with the new tyre we have in our weekend allocation, so I wanted to do lots of laps to understand it. It felt quite good and strong. I do feel good on the bike, and quite comfortable. I am looking forward to the first race on Saturday. I don’t think I will be in Bulega’s race, but after him there are maybe five guys with similar speed.”

Axel Bassani stated: “Friday has been quite a good day, and we always worked in a good way. In FP1 the feeling was not the same that I had in the tests a few days ago - but in FP2 we made some small changes and the feeling came back. We also did a lot of runs and the pace has been consistent, but we are missing some tenths, I think. We will work even more for tomorrow and find a little more pace, then we will see how things are. We worked on both the front and rear of the bike, but in general we did not make big changes, even during the official tests, because the base is quite good.”