"I kept trying to pass him… I had nothing to fight with!" – Lowes, Redding discuss epic Race 1 battle
The battle for third raged on until the final few laps of Race 1 at Donington Park with Alex Lowes going up against Scott Redding
It was an epic fight between Alex Lowes (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK) and Scott Redding (BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team) for the final spot on the podium in Race 1 at Donington Park for the Prosecco DOC UK Round. While Lowes would eventually come out on top, and take his 30th MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship podium, it was a stunning fight with Redding as the pair battled it out for third spot.
Lowes was involved in many battles throughout the 23-lap race, first with teammate Jonathan Rea in the opening stages of the race and then with Redding in the closing stages as he fought for his first podium of the campaign. Having dropped back to fifth, Lowes was promoted to fourth when Alvaro Bautista (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) crashed out before he hunted down Redding for third. From Redding’s side, he started from fourth place but dropped down to sixth at the end of Lap 1 before moving up the order to fourth place; promoted to third following Bautista’s crash.
In the last few laps, Lowes was able to close in on Redding and the pair battled it out with it coming to an epic conclusion on Laps 19 and 20. Lowes first got through at the Turn 9-10 chicane before Redding responded immediately into the Melbourne Loop at Turn 11. At Turn 12, Lowes was able to get up the inside of Redding before the BMW rider responded on the inside of Turn 1. At Turn 2, Lowes was able to get underneath Redding to claim third place.
Discussing his battle with Redding, Lowes said: “I was really struggling on the bike, I didn’t have much grip. Luckily, I was battling with Scott and I realised his grip was even less than mine! There were some parts of the track he was so much faster than me, and other parts where I was quite a lot faster than him. I kept trying to pass him, but he was really late on the brakes until Melbourne Loop. We had a bit where I passed, and he passed back. Then he ran a little bit wide at Turn 2. I just managed to get underneath him. If I didn’t get past him enough, he was going to come straight back at me, and I was losing quite a lot of time. I was quite anxious to get past; it was a good battle.”
Redding, who just missed out on his first BMW podium, also discussed the battle. He said: “I just lost the last bit of the tyre with five laps to go and there was nothing I could do, which was a shame because the podium would’ve been amazing. The battle was kind of short because I had nothing to fight with, but I thought I would try anyway. It was good to battle. I had to try but I think it was three laps to go, I wasn’t going to hold him for three laps; he had too much of an advantage. It was quite good to be in the battle towards the front of the field.”
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