Lowes on form at Superbike

Despite a crash in Race 1, Alex Lowes rounded off his weekend in Catalunya well. Sixth in the Superpole, the Kawasaki rider took fifth in Sunday morning's Sprint before finishing Race 2 in fourth position. These results allow him to move up to ninth place in the overall rankings. “This weekend we showed that we can perform well when we don't have grip problems," said Lowes. “Friday was a difficult day because we were struggling with the front tyre. We changed the set-up and we were a bit better on Saturday. Unfortunately my crash didn't allow us to build on our progress. The fact that the temperature dropped by about 10 degrees on Sunday worked in our favour. I made two good starts and didn't make any mistakes, which allowed me to record two good results.”

Unlike his teammate, Jonathan Rea started his weekend better than he finished it. Third in the first race of the weekend, the six-time world champion paid dearly for a crash in the Superpole race. “While fighting with Toprak Razgatlioglu, I must have touched a white line and fell," commented Rea. “From then on, everything got complicated because I ended up on the fourth row of the grid for Race 2. I lost time passing the Honda riders and then worked my tyres hard fighting with Locatelli. That didn't allow me to go after Alex at the end of the race.” Fifth at the chequered flag, Jonathan Rea nevertheless climbed to fourth place overall.