Aprilia’s Sam Lowes believes a private test in Valencia last week helped the Briton to secure a provisional Q2 spot after Friday practice for the Aragon MotoGP race.
The Italian manufacturer and Lowes spent a day at the Ricardo Tormo Circuit in Valencia in the week prior to the Aragon round, during which numerous set–ups were tested.
12th fastest in this morning’s damp first session, Lowes continued his strong form in similar conditions in the afternoon and was seventh on a 2m00.585s – 0.727 seconds off of pacesetter Dani Pedrosa.
“I think the Valencia test helped us,” Lowes, who won the Moto2 race at Aragon one year ago, said.
“We were able to use a few solutions (we tested), especially in terms of electronics strategies.
“In these particular conditions today, I was fast without making any mistakes.
“It’s nice to be able to show my potential, although I would prefer to do so on a dry track.”
With the weather forecast predicting better conditions for the remaining two days, Saturday’s third practice will prove frantic as the field push to secure a direct spot into Q2.
Keen on making just his second visit to the pole shoot–out session, Lowes admits his focus in the third session will be solely on his race set–up.
“Tomorrow, in FP3, there will be a lot of riders pushing to go straight through to Q2, and I wouldn’t mind the result,” he said.
“But I will be focusing on preparing for the race. This will be my first time here at Aragon on the MotoGP bike, and I really like this track.
“So working with Sunday in mind is the most important thing.”
Lowes‘ team–mate Aleix Espargaro – who secured his only MotoGP podium to date at Aragon in 2014 – was ninth fastest at the end of Friday’s running.
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