Alex Lowes (bimota by Kawasaki Racing Team) showed impressive speed on the KB998 Rimini at the Autodrom Most on Friday for the MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship. The #22 set the third-fastest lap time as he goes in search of Bimota’s first podium since their return to the Championship, and the Motul Czech Round is a round where the Brit claimed a podium last season on the Kawasaki ZX-10RR. With good performances at Most last year and strong pace on Friday, is Lowes in a position to stand on the rostrum in 2025 in Czechia?

Lowes' best time on Friday was a 1’31.607s as he secured third place in the combined standings, lapping slower than only pacesetter Toprak Razgatlioglu (ROKiT BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team) and twin brother Sam Lowes (ELF Marc VDS Racing Team). The #22 was a few tenths away from Razgatlioglu, while Sam and Alex were close on the timesheets: just half-a-tenth separated them in terms of outright pace.

With FP1 heavily disrupted due to multiple red flags, it came down to FP2 for the long runs. Alex Lowes completed 14 laps in total across two stints. His first run was nine laps long, with his best time coming on Lap 8 of 9. The times ranged from a 1’31.607s to a 1’32.816s – with one lap cancelled but not a representative time, in the 1’37s bracket. The second stint was just three laps, all in the 1’32s bracket – from 1’32.919s on the first lap to 1’32.325s on the last.

Discussing what was a tricky Friday for the WorldSBK field, Alex Lowes said: “The strategy and plan sort of went out the window today, because in the first session, we had a lot of red flags; it was interrupted quite a lot. Immediately, I managed to feel quite good. The track was a bit damp, but I went down to decent pace and the bike was working pretty well. In the afternoon, we tried something on the bike, and it was pretty good and positive. I kept the same tyres all session to understand my pace. At the end of the first exit, my pace was strong, and I was doing my best lap after 10 laps. It looks like, after that, we had a bit of a drop with the tyre. There wasn’t so much rubber on the track today, and it was quite cold and windy. The track should improve. We need to keep an eye on that tomorrow; it’s a long race and tyre life can be a problem because temperatures are a lot cooler than we’ve had in the past.

“The bike itself was good fun to ride. In sectors two and three, I think the bike was working really well. I enjoyed it. In the last sector, I’m not very good. Axel was stronger than me there so he’s doing something a bit better, so I need to try to understand that tonight. If I can improve there a little bit, I think we can be in a decent position to get our best results of the year. I enjoyed it and got plenty of laps in, in quite tricky conditions.”

One thing that will be important to Alex Lowes' potential in the race is Saturday morning’s Tissot Superpole session. The #22 spoke about how important the grid-setting session will be, particularly after he’s struggled in recent rounds over one lap. In Portugal, he crashed, and then yellow flags impacted his ability to set a fast time; at Assen, was on the third row in ninth and he was 16^th last time out at Cremona.

“I’ve been useless in the last few rounds in Superpole,” started the Brit, not holding anything back on himself when discussing recent Superpole results. “I lost my lap in Portugal which could’ve put me on the second row of the grid. It’s so close now in WorldSBK, if you put yourself there on Lap 3, all the guys have the same speed, so you have a chance of staying and fighting for the top five, maybe even a podium if some of the guys make a mistake. That’s what I was able to do last year, qualify well, start well, start the races fast; it’s something I’ve not been able to do yet on the Bimota. I’m improving every time I ride it. Superpole’s going to be important. The Superpole tyre is the SC0 tyre, the race tyre is the SC1 that we used today; it’s quite a lot harder than we’ve had at previous rounds. If I can qualify on the front two rows, I think we’ll have a good chance of being in the mix and having a good race.”

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