Axel Bassani has low expectations for the KB998 Rimini for this weekend's Estoril World Superbike Round.
This weekend is the penultimate round of the bimota by Kawasaki Racing Team's debut season in the World Superbike Championship.
The Italian team began fielding their KB998 Rimini's in World Superbikes at the beginning of the year with Alex Lowes and Axel Bassani.
It has been a positive debut year for the bimota by Kawasaki Racing Team. Lowes sits seventh in the Championship and has four podiums to his name. However, his longer Italian teammate, Bassani, sits 10th in the standings and has not featured on the podium yet.
Bassani's best result was a fifth place in Race Two at the TT Circuit Assen earlier in the 2025 season. However, he has been a consistent top ten contender throughout the remainder of the season.
However, the 26-year-old does not expect to have a strong weekend in Portugal as he does not believe the circuit and the KB998 Rimini will work well together.
"Estoril is not a bad track layout," Bassani said ahead of his first visit to Estoril as a bimota rider.
"It is a little bit small, but with a long front straight. That part is maybe not the best for us, but compared to the previous round at Motorland Aragon, the rest of the Estoril track is a bit slower, with a lot of hard braking areas. I think we can be part of the game.
"For sure, we will have to do a lot of good work in Superpole Qualifying. We will need a slipstream, in reality. We will see what happens, but we will continue working hard in practice and then try to find some good results in the races."
