Lowes to test at Aragon this week

Sam Lowes was disappointed after Sunday’s race not to do better than fourth but given his second lap clash with Simone Corsi his effort in the race was commendable. Lowes dropped to ninth and had to fight through the pack to get back to the front and had the pace to match race winner Tito Rabat. A lack of experience from him and the team saw him choose the wrong tyre option and race with the harder rubber but a test at Aragon this week should help him get more on terms with what needs to be done to get the most from his Speed Up.

“We’re working a lot with the bike and we’ll have a test next week in Aragon,” said Lowes. “At the test we’re hoping that it’s really hot so that we can try lots of tyres and try some different things with the shocks but the last few races we’ve been really strong. We want to be winning all the races but these guys are the same and they’ve got their bikes dialled in so hopefully we can dial ours in a bit more during the test. We’re one third of the way into the season and it hasn’t been too bad so far.”

Having qualified on pole the Lincolnshire native was disappointed not to be able to validate his strong pace with a podium but overall his maturity shone through afterwards when he said:

“This race result looks bad because we were so strong in qualifying but we’ve struggled all year in the heat so finishing fourth, and having had the pace for the podium, is a really good result in these conditions and shows the progress that we’ve made. To do what we did today with those temperatures was good and I rode well enough for third and who knows where I would have have been without that moment. I think that we would have been right there for the win.”