Alex Lowes on the Kawasaki Ninjia ZX-10RR – an undisputedly powerful combination, which became clear after his first race weekend in Australia in 2020, when the Englishman returned from Phillip Island as world championship leader.

Rea and Lowes feel ready for the season opener

After, as we have just reported, Jonathan Rea had finished the test with a new best time in the Motorland Aragon, the Kawasaki Racing Team (KRT) reported positively with their impressions, as expected. There are supposed to be journalists who even claimed that the opponents were surprised by his slight improvement in the pole record from last year. However, this is pure nonsense, as one of our friends from the WorldSBK paddock assured us with a laugh. Kawasaki would also hardly put a new model of the Ninja ZX-10RR at a huge expense, so that the reigning world champion rides more slowly than on the aging Kawasaki Superbike from last year. The following are the combined test times of the last tests in Aragon, before HRC Honda with Bautista and Haslam will be the last team to take to the track.

The overview of the best Aragon test times until May 5th:
1. Jonathan Rea (GB), Kawasaki, 1:48.528 (absolute lap record from the SP 2020: 1:48.767 by J. Rea)
2. Alex Lowes (GB), Kawasaki, 1:49.182
3. Toprak Razgatlioglu (TR), Yamaha, 1:49.763
4. Tom Sykes (GB), BMW, 1:49,857
5. Chaz Davies (GB), Ducati, 1:49.913 min
6. Garrett Gerloff (GRT Yamaha), 1:50.577
7. Eugene Laverty (IRL), BMW, 1:50.604
8. Andrea Locatelli (ITA), Yamaha, 1:50.702
9. Michael van der Mark (NL), BMW, 1:50,781
10. Jonas Folger (D), BMW, 1:50.815
11. Isaac Vinales (E), Kawasaki, 1:51.724
12. Kohta Nozane (JAP), (GRT Yamaha), 1:52,254
13. Chris Ponsson (F), (Alstare Yamaha), 1:52.946

Alex Lowes in the Kawasaki box with his crew and a Showa technician on the left in the picture, who is listening attentively. The young man from Lincoln is driving his second year for the most successful team of the last 10 years in the WoldSBK this season.

Marcel Duinker, Alex Lowes’ crew chief: “We had a good test in Motorland and Alex was very happy. The conditions were fantastic, and we used the full two days to prepare for the first race weekend. We simulated some parts of a racing weekend, and of course there were several longer sessions and racing simulations included. This is the time to optimize our bike for real races. We have a clear opinion on the Kawasaki in hot and slippery conditions and a clear opinion on the situation with the tires. After our positive experiences over two days, we are ready for the first race weekend. “

The route near the small town of Alcaniz is, together with San Juan in Argentina, one of the two on the calendar that is driven in a counterclockwise direction. Because races overseas are currently very unlikely, it may well be that the season opener will be the only time “backwards” in the second Corona year.

Pere Riba, the crew chief of Jonathan Rea: “We used two full days here in Aragon and with the new rules for testing this is maybe a lot. But we decided to prepare well for the first race and immediately after Aragon is Estoril, and the next test after that is pretty close for us with Navarra. So we wanted to create a base and confirm some things from the previous test. Everything went very well. On the first day we focused on testing and confirming the smaller things. On the chassis side, a kind of connection with a slightly different character that we’ve been testing all winter. It has been confirmed, and we are satisfied with the result. “

Jonathan Rea in the Kawasaki box in conversation with his crew chief Pere Riba, himself a former WorldSBK and WSSP driver. For more on his years as an active pilot, see our richly illustrated history.

How about the feeling of your top rider? “Johnny is very happy. We also made the last few points with the electronics and worked a lot with the torque transmission to give the best feeling for him and to achieve a long service life with the entire package. I did a race simulation on the rear tire, and it was very, very positive. He was very quick and consistent and happy with the feeling on the Kawasaki. Today we focused on getting a fast lap time and Johnny has the fastest of any SBK so far. Times in Aragon. It improved by a good two tenths compared to the previous year. We did a second-long run with a softer tire on the last day. Johnny is extremely satisfied, and he works very intensively with the bike, and we are ready for the first run.“

Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki ZX-10RR Ninja) – the reigning world champion from behind. This may even be the position from where most of his competitors will see him on the first WorldSBK weekend in Aragon.

Alex Lowes on the two days of testing in Aragon: “That was a good test for me. One of the main goals for today was to improve my feel with the electronics on the bike. We ran two race simulations this afternoon in hot conditions where the track theoretically has the least grip. We tried to find a better feeling with the Kawasaki. Overall, I am very happy. We didn’t put the whole bike together freshly, but now we have a few weeks to check the data, put together our favorite configuration and start the party for the first lap! 104 laps might not be most of what I’ve done on the Kawasaki in one day, but I had a smile on my face the whole time, that’s definitely the main thing. “

Our panoramic shot from the WorldSBK start-finish grandstand in Aragon 2019 with the Toprak fans and the Turkish flag on the right. At the beginning of April it was bitterly cold in Aragon and barely above 10 degrees Celsius.

Jonathan Rea on his impressions from the last test before the start of the season: “I am very satisfied with this test. We managed to tick everything off the list that we had and that we prioritized with racing simulations. I did one of these every day, at the time of day the races will take place – in fact, we did it a little later to reach the peak of the temperature at 3pm. We expect the race weekend to be a little hotter than it is now. We have a lot of good information about it. I used both rear tire options, so we have a lot of good information. Step by step we continued to work on my riding, on some electronic items.“

Our snapshot during an interview in Imola when the record world champion won for the first time after a tough start to the season.

Where did you see the focus in the last tests? “Especially for myself to get a rhythm and understand how the tire behaves over many laps. Also, to develop electronic strategies that can be used during the race. I want to thank my guys for completely rebuilding the bike as we were trying to understand where some issues were occurring. To rule out everything, they built a completely new bike for me, and they worked tirelessly. Kudos to everyone on the team for the entire winter testing program. It was very busy, but I’m looking forward to going into the first round in a little over two weeks and seeing where we are.“

The Aragon circuit is considered to be very demanding and is far from all riders in both WorldSBK and MotoGP. In the preliminary report for the season opener of the Superbike World Championship, we will go into more detail on some aspects and the earlier years.

We will shortly be bringing the first preliminary report to the season opener and before that some “delicacies” on the sidelines.

Unless otherwise mentioned, applies to all images (© WorldSBK).