A dramatic conclusion to the 2014 eni FIM Superbike World Championship saw Eugene Laverty and Alex Lowes both achieve a ninth place finish each in Sunday’s two races at the Losail International Circuit in Qatar. A relatively uneventful race one left Laverty circulating in tenth for the majority of the first half before advancing on Honda’s Leon Haslam for ninth. With changes made to his Yoshimura-powered machine in the two hour window, Laverty started the season’s final battle strongly. His intent to hunt down the leaders for his last podium in the Championship, however, was cut short by a crash at turn six on the third lap, calling time early on his final outing aboard his Voltcom Crescent Suzuki.

Showing impressive pace on his Suzuki GSX-R1000 as the season finale drew to a close; Alex Lowes consistently matched the lap times of the front running group in the late evening race. The disappointment of the previous day’s qualifying, however, impacted his race day, his ninth place finish barely reflecting the efforts of both team and rider. A bad start to the day’s opening race had initially seen Lowes drop to 13th, but the Suzuki racer soon regrouped, closing up to his teammate to round out the top 10 in the last third of the race and retaining the position to the flag.

Voltcom Crescent Suzuki has now returned to its UK headquarters to begin preparation for the 2015 Championship, and a week of testing scheduled at Jerez, in Spain from Monday 24th November, with its new rider pairing of Lowes and Randy de Puniet.

Eugene Laverty: “Race one was poor, I really struggled with the front tyre and ninth was all I could manage - we came strong in the second half of the race but it was too little too late. We changed to a different front tyre for the second race and the feeling was much better. I was going to be in that fight for fourth and I was desperate to cling on but I had issues with the rear entry grip and it suddenly came around on me. It was a strange crash as I’ve never crashed like that before and it was a disappointing way to end the season.
“I was desperate to get on the podium this weekend, and I was pushing for that, to try and reward the team with another podium. It hasn’t been the best of years, with just a win at Phillip Island and then a podium at Sepang, the boys deserved much more as they have been working hard. I never really like to say that our luck was out, but sometimes this year it did seem that way. Thanks to the whole team and all the sponsors for never giving up and I’m just disappointed we couldn’t finish on a high!”

Alex Lowes: “Tenth and a ninth may not look as good on paper but it doesn’t tell the whole story. The front tyre started to cut up with about eight laps to go in race one which made it quite hard work, so I just had to get the bike to the finish. For the second race Lez made some great changes to the bike and it felt a lot better, we tried a different front tyre that I’ve not raced all year but once I got used to it, after the first six laps, it was probably the best I’ve ridden since Donington, so a nice way to finish the year. I was just a few seconds off the guys who finished in fourth place so I’m quite happy with that, I dug in until the last lap of the last race of the year and it has given me a bit of confidence going forward to testing.