A new celebratory ‘tricolore’ livery on the bimota KB998 Rimini machines highlighted the local roots of bimota as a manufacturer, with green panels being added to the largely white and red regular colour scheme.

Hot and humid weather conditions characterised the first day of competitive action at the 4.226km long circuit, just a short drive from the bimota HQ in Rimini.

Track temperatures rose to 45°C in FP2, with air temperatures of 30°C evident at times, making the work for the riders and technical staff particularly intense.

Lowes set his best Friday time of 1’33.810 in the afternoon while Bassani’s fastest lap of 1’33.880 was set in the morning’s FP1 session.

In the combined times across both Friday track sessions Alex was eighth fastest and Axel 11th.

Free Practice Three, Superpole Qualifying and Race One will be next up for Alex and Axel, on Saturday 14 June.

Axel Bassani stated: “The first day in Misano was quite good. And hot. We tried some things in FP1 and we went out with the same bike set-up as we had in the recent Misano test. The feeling was the same, and the lap time also. In the second free practice we tried something in the front. For me was better, but now we have some issues on the rear. We will check the data now. The race pace seems quite similar from P3 to P11, with the same lap times. It will be a hard race on Saturday and we will have to fight a lot - but we will enjoy it.”

Alex Lowes stated: “A hot day one in Misano, a lot hotter conditions than we had in the recent Misano test. We worked really hard in the test trying to develop the bike and try some new parts. Today we really focused on the settings for Misano itself. I really enjoyed riding the bike and I felt quite good, I was just missing a bit of performance compared to the first four or five guys. I did a long run, felt pretty good, tried some things on the bike, and we have a good direction for the first raceday tomorrow. I think the new colours on the bike look great so let’s see if we can make a little step forward for Superpole and then Race One.”