PATA Yamaha Official WorldSBK Team's Alex Lowes will sit out his final duties as replacement for injured Bradley Smith (Monster Yamaha Tech 3) at the Aragon GP, after he suffered a crash in FP3 on Saturday morning. Leaving it until race day for a final decision, the young Brit was finally declared unfit to race due to pain from a contusion on his left foot.

Lowes, who has scored points and impressed on his MotoGP™ debut since Silverstone, won the Suzuka 8H endurance race and was given a test ride at Brno on the Monster Yamaha Tech 3 machine as a reward. Bradley Smith then crashed during a practice session for the Oschersleben 8H endurance race and fellow Brit Lowes was given the call up. Aragon is a track the Englishman knows from WorldSBK, but has decided to sit out the race to concentrate on being as fit as possible for the upcoming French Round of WorldSBK at Magny-Cours.

"It's a shame to end my MotoGP™ experience like this," said the number 22 rider. "But the priority is WorldSBK and that's why I want to go home and have time to recover. The crash was quite big and I'm quite lucky to get away with it. In a couple of days I think I'll be a lot better already, now I just need to get back home and understand what the damage is - but I'm looking forward to being ready for Magny-Cours."

Lowes should be back at 100% for next weekend's MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship Round in France, as the last three dates on the 2016 calendar count down.