The MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship returned to action at the TT Circuit Assen for the Pirelli Dutch Round and it was a strong Friday for the Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK squad with Alex Lowes in second place and Jonathan Rea in third. The pair were two tenths away from Alvaro Bautista (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) at the top of the timesheets as they enjoyed a strong Friday and will be looking to convert that into race wins and podiums at the iconic Assen circuit.

Lowes was the faster of the two in Friday’s combined classification as he posted a 1’34.547s to finish as the lead Kawasaki rider, finishing 0.026s clear of teammate and six-time Champion Jonathan Rea in third place. Lowes completed 39 laps across both Friday sessions while Rea completed 35 laps as Kawasaki continue to hunt for performance to close the gap to Bautista and Ducati in the Championship standings, starting at a circuit where Rea has won at on 17 occasions.

In FP2, Lowes’ longest stint was a 11-lap run at the start of the session where he consistently posted lap times in the 1’34s and 1’35s brackets, while Rea’s longest run was an eight-lap stint and he, like Lowes, posted times in the 1’34s and 1’35s bracket. It was a strong start to the weekend for both Kawasaki riders and, after, both were able to give their thoughts on whether Assen could be a turning point for Kawasaki in the early stages of the season.

Discussing Friday, Rea said: “Really solid, we evaluated the tyre options, both front and rear, but I didn’t find a combination that works well with our bike in the end after some trial and error. There are some plusses and minuses to some options so after a compromise, we put the right set together, not fresh but a very old front tyre, but it’s working well. The bike is working well from this morning, it was in line and on rails and actually, we didn’t touch the bike so much today. We just have some electronic things to dial out. In the afternoon, the wind picked up and change direction a little bit so going through the fast kink on the back straight coming back to the paddock, it was so scary! Every time I tipped in there; my balls were in my mouth! It was good fun, but you don’t want to go down there as you’re going fast. It definitely kept me awake during the session! Hopefully the wind drops a little bit tomorrow and focus on putting a race together.

“We expected to be stronger here than the first two rounds, at a circuit that’s a bit more normal, with a good reference from the past and also the temperature is cooler. If everything goes together, we have more chance to be competitive; I didn’t expect to have the rhythm that I had, and I think we can improve still. Tomorrow is what counts with Superpole and the race, proved at Phillip Island and Mandalika as Superpole is everything. There’re so many fast guys in the top ten but you need good track position on the first lap because if your rivals get ahead, then you’re stuck in traffic and the race is over. We’ll put a lot of emphasis in Superpole to set a fast lap; the target is getting on the front row.”

Lowes also discussed his Friday where he finished in second place with the British rider alluding to the cooler conditions at Assen, compared to the first two rounds in Australia and Indonesia, helping Kawasaki. He also revealed some changes to his ZX-10RR to change his position on the bike in order to not stress the front tyre too much, which could help him in the latter stages of races when tyres are older.

Lowes said: “It was good. In these colder conditions, we always expect to be quite strong on the Kawasaki; the track offers a lot of grip and we can really use the advantages of our bike which are stopping and turning the bike on the front. It’s a pleasure to ride at Assen. It’s a track I know very well, and I’ve always enjoyed it, always gone well here. It was a little bit better than expected. I was able to do the lap times, it’s never easy, but I was feeling quite good. I used one set of tyres this morning, one this afternoon. We tried SC0 this morning and I felt quite good with the SC0. For the afternoon, I knew we’d make a good step and I felt good straight away. We changed my riding position at the Montmelo test a few weeks ago. I’m a bit further back on the bike and I felt some benefits with it. I’ve had to take some time to get used to it but there’s less stress on the front tyre which is something we’ve been struggling with at Kawasaki, not just me, in the first two rounds.”

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