Both Lowes and Rea benefitted from cool but dry track conditions around the famous 4.542km long TT Circuit Assen in the Netherlands, but recent private tests have also brought set-up improvements to the latest official WorldSBK Ninja ZX-10RR.
Lowes set a fast lap early in the second Free Practice session, with only reigning World Champion Alvaro Bautista setting a quicker pace than the KRT rider by the time FP2 had been concluded. Lowes’ recent change of riding position, and thus machine balance, has been the main area of improvement for Alex and his crew.
Rea was pleasantly surprised to start his FP1 session with the same settings he and his team had arrived at after recent testing at first Motorland Aragon and then Barcelona-Catalunya. He made full use of them to finish inside the overnight top three.
Although Rea’s technical crew changed some settings mid-session, they put them back to the starting point by the end of the day’s track action. Rea is only looking for small improvements in his set-up to take into the first 18-lap race of the Assen weekend, which takes place on Saturday 22 April.
Every one of the 25 riders in the WorldSBK class this weekend set their best times in the second free practice session.
Jonathan Rea, stated: “We came here with a new set-up that we found in the recents tests. We have such a good track record at Assen I thought surely we would start with the base set-up from before, but we were fast in the tests, so they have brought that exact bike set-up. We changed a spring and a turn of preload between the FP1 and FP2 session, but then we went back again halfway through the second session. The bike is working really well just as it came from the Barcelona test. We also worked to understand the front and rear tyres and now we have a good idea about our race tyre choices. I think everything is ready, I just need to optimise the real fine tuning - but we are in the ballpark. I don’t think we showed our full potential today.”
Alex Lowes, stated: “Alvaro’s pace was very fast but I was pretty good. I felt good with the bike. I just had one set of tyres on the bike in the first session and then one set of tyres in the afternoon session. Here, it is more the front tyre that you struggle with, so I tried to put a lot of laps on the front tyre. We have done some hard work in the past two tests. The weather this weekend is going to be changeable so we need to be ready to react to that. I worked on race pace and long runs in the tests because we had been struggling with the front tyre after ten or 12 laps. The changes we made in the tests I have used again today, and we have not gone back to the old settings. I am using the new riding position and I feel quite good. I am enjoying it and I’m looking forward to the races.”
Tom Sykes (Kawasaki Puccetti Racing) was 22nd after day one, Oliver König (Orelac Racing Movisio Kawasaki) placed 24th.
The TPR by Vinales Racing Kawasaki Team had its first outing of the year at Assen with Isaac Vinales finishing up 25th on day one.
2023 KRT Rider WorldSBK Statistics
Jonathan Rea: World Champion 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019 & 2020
2023: Races 6, Wins 0, Podiums 1, Superpoles 0
Career Race Wins: 118 (103 for Kawasaki)
Career Podiums: 246 (204 for Kawasaki)
Career Poles: 40 (36 for Kawasaki)
Alex Lowes:
2023: Races: 6, Wins 0, Podiums 1, Superpoles 0
Career Race Wins: 2 (1 for Kawasaki)
Career Podiums: 34 (14 for Kawasaki)
Career Poles: 1 (0 for Kawasaki)
8 x Riders’ Championships (Scott Russell 1993, Tom Sykes 2013, 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: 177 – second overall
Total Kawasaki Podiums: 525 – second overall
Total Kawasaki Poles: 105 – second overall
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