Alex Lowes back to work with Kawasaki after the injury in training that kept him off for two months. In Jerez he was faster than Alvaro Bautista and Leon Haslam
Alex Lowes is back on the Kawasaki Superbike. He hadn’t tested since last November and at Jerez he rode stronger than the Honda HRCs on the track with Bautista and Haslam. The timing was not available in the two Andalusian days but it was Marcel Duinker, Alex Lowes’ technical chief, who revealed it. “One of the goals of this test was to check the driver’s condition after the injury and we found that he recovered 99%,” explained the Dutchman. “We were very surprised by the chronometric results. With the race tire, he did 1’39” 6, with qualifying 1’38 “9. He was the fastest on track.”
Obviously, these indications do not have great value because the teams carried out different activities. During the next round in Barcelona (31st March and 1st April) all the teams will meet for the first time. There will therefore be an opportunity to have a more precise idea of the values on the pitch. It will not be a definitive verdict, because the start of the World Cup will be on 22nd-23rd May in Aragon. After Barcelona, there will be four more testing days available. From this season the tests are limited, meaning that each rider cannot be on track for more than ten days. That’s why Kawasaki returned to Jerez with only Alex Lowes, leaving Jonathan Rea at home, who had already made a stop in Andalusia last month.
Akashi’s technicians left Jerez with such a smile on their faces. The new Ninja with aerodynamic has a more powerful engine. Jonathan Rea talks about it very well and Alex Lowes is also finding himself perfectly. With a rider who has been out for four months and not yet at his best due to a shoulder injury, Kawasaki is already faster than the Honda CBR-RR.