Lowes hails "pretty good" weekend at Misano!
The British rider was back at the sharp end in Italy, fighting tooth-and-nail throughout the weekend for top positions!
After the misfortune of Jerez, Alex Lowes was back on the podium on Sunday at Misano, with a second in the Tissot Superpole Race and a strong fourth in Race 2, just behind Leon Haslam (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK). Having crashed in all three races at Jerez – albeit with some assistance from Jonathan Rea in Race 1 – Lowes was eager to be back at the front at Misano.
Race 1 didn’t fair too well for the British rider from Lincolnshire, as he took the lead just two laps before crashing at Turn 12. With treacherous conditions, he wasn’t the first, nor was the last to crash in the race. He bounced back in the Tissot Superpole Race, taking second and capitalising on the likes of Sandro Cortese (GRT Yamaha WorldSBK) and Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK) crashing ahead of him, whilst Tom Sykes (BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team) retired from the battling group on the final lap.
Speaking after the race, Lowes stated his joy to be back on the WorldSBK podium and also about chasing down his teammate for third in the championship: "The weekend has been a pretty good one overall, marred only by the mistake on Saturday when I was trying to win Race 1. I got caught out by new standing water, which was a bit unexpected at that point in the race, but I'll learn from it. Sunday morning was good, and I was expecting to be stronger in the afternoon, but we struggled a bit with acceleration as the temperature rose and grip went down.”
Having lost third in the championship with his hat-trick of crashes at Jerez, combined with teammate Michael van der Mark two second-places and a win, Lowes reeled his rival back in, and is now just 24 points behind the Dutchman – who was absent this weekend after a colossal FP2 crash.
“We'd made some changes to the bike compared to Friday, but the worsening track condition made it difficult to assess whether these were an improvement or not. It was tough for everyone in the race today. I tried to pass Haslam a few times, but I didn't feel comfortable on the front and couldn't make the passes stick, so I had to settle for fourth in the end. Now it's off to Donington, my home track.”
Can Lowes be in contention for race wins at Donington Park? Find out with the WorldSBK VideoPass!
