Pata Yamaha Official WorldSBK Team rider Alex Lowes stormed to second position in Superpole 2, giving himself chance to start Race 1 in his best grid position of the season so far. Yamaha have been strong in qualifying in their first season back in WorldSBK, and Sepang saw Lowes also able to convert the front row into a top 5 result after leading off the line. Despite running wide at one point, the Brit rode a determined race to fight back and finished with a strong top five position.

The mistake at turn four saw him demoted to ninth on lap six, but Lowes dug deep and mounted a fresh charge as his pace improved. Fighting back to fifth he boosted his championship position by two places to eighth in the standings, with a total of 70 points.

"It was a good day and a good race for me at Sepang," said Lowes. "Obviously my best result of the year so far and my best qualifying as well. It was good to lead the race, I got a good start and it was nice to ride the YZF-R1 at the front. We deserve to be more competitive every week so we need to keep working but it was a great feeling. We made some steps with the pace at the end to recover to fifth place - I wanted fourth but couldn't quite make it!

"I pushed a little bit too hard to stay with Chaz at the beginning and made a mistake but if we can make some changes tomorrow to give me a bit better feeling from the bike in a few areas I think we could challenge for the podium. Maybe it's a bit too soon but overall today felt good, I enjoyed it and hopefully but we can have another solid result on Sunday."

Lowes will get another chance at the holeshot on Sunday in Race 2 as the lights go out once again at 16:00 local time (GMT +8) at Sepang International Circuit.