Axel Bassani’s first test of the Kawasaki: “Completely different to Ducati!”
He was 10🎶ꩵth-fastest overall on a rain-disrupted day, clocking a top time of 1’41.801s.
Bassani was 1.964s slower tha💟n Remy Gardner, who was fastest on Tuesday, but was only six tenths behind new teammate Alex Lowes.
“It’s going well,” he said after his first day🐽 as a factory rider.
“I’⛄m happy and I feel good with the team. We did some laps with the team this morning.🐭
“It’s not easy to change but I feel good with the bike,💮 and I enjoyed it. It’s completely different from the Ducati.
“Step by step, I’ll try to understand the new bik🌳e with no pressure. 𒉰;
“I don’t want to be really fast immediately, but I want to understand the bike and team really well and after🌜wards, we will see.”
Bassani will work with crew chief Marcel Duinker in 2024. Duinker was alongside Lowes last year, butღ Lowes will switch toꦗ working with Jonathan Rea’s ex crew chief Pere Riba.
More significantly perhaps, changing a Panigale V4 R for a ZX-10RR means changing a V4 fo🌄r 𒊎an inline-4 engine.
“Everything is different,” Bassani said.
“It’s a completely diff🐟erent bike. They have two wheels but they’re complet✤ely different!
“It’s okay, I like it. It’s good, I like the people inside the box. I feel good with my n༺ew crew chief.&nbs🤡p;
“I have to speak a lot of English, which isn’t easy for♊ me, but it’s good for learnin🐼g!”
He said ahead of Wednesday, the final day of the Jerez test: “We’ll try to change somethin💜g on the bike.
“I hope, tomorrow, the weather will be much better and also the track. This morཧning was really difficult to ride. There were a lot of patches 🦩of water on track.”
