Missed gear costs Lowes dear in race two

Pata Yamaha’s Alex Lowes was forced into a recovery ride in Sunday’s 19-lap second race from MotorLand Aragon, after a missed gear sent him off track at Turn 14.

The British rider was confident of being able to challenge for the podium this weekend, but was hindered by a heavy fall and a mechanical issue in FP3 and Superpole.

Despite this, Lowes put in a brilliant performance in Saturday’s race to come through to fourth and claim pole for today’s outing. The Yamaha ride seized the opportunity and led for the first four laps in race two.

His YZF-R1 didn’t quite have the pace to keep Jonathan Rea, Marco Melandri and Chaz Davies at bay, but he was still keeping them at arm’s length by mid-distance. However, with eight laps to go, his race unravelled.

Lowes admitted afterwards that his bike wasn’t quite behaving correctly, and as he clicked down the gears on his way into Turn 14 he ran off track.

“I’m annoyed but its my first small mistake in a race this year,” he said.

“It wasn’t all my fault. I haven’t been 100 percent happy with the shifting on the bike and just at that point I didn’t get the shift quite right and missed the gear. I ran off and that was it, 20 seconds gone right there to get back into the race.”

Lowes rejoined down in 13^th, and much to his annoyance his pace at this stage of the race was similar to that of Ducati’s Melandri, who was running third at the time. A podium for Melandri in race two bumps Lowes to fifth in the standings on 61 points.

Though disappointed to miss out on a shot at a debut Yamaha podium, Lowes still feels that he and the team have made another step forward with the R1, even if he thinks his early race pace is still lacking.

“When I got back on track my pace was similar to Marco Melandri’s, but I was a long way behind. I’m upset that we had an opportunity to fight for the podium and we didn’t take it.

“I feel good and I really feel we have made a good step forward with the bike. I need to improve in the first few laps, but my race pace in the second half of the race is good and I fully believe I could have been battling with the guys for the podium today.

“That’s my goal for Assen; keep consistent, keep working hard and keep having fun.”