Alex Lowes endured a luckless opening World Superbike race in Qatar when a damaged brake lever from crash on lap 11 caught his glove and led to another fall on the penultimate lap.
Lowes was second on the combined times after Thursday’s two practice sessions, and carried that form through to Superpole to be pole man Jonathan Rea’s nearest challenger in second.
The Briton reclaimed second from Tom Sykes on lap two after slipping behind the Kawasaki rider at the start, though soon had to contend with the hard-charging Ducati-mounted duo of Chaz Davies and Xavi Fores.
A technical issue for Fores promoted Lowes back up to third, and he was bearing down on Davies when he pushed too hard into the final corner and crashed.
He rejoined and stole 14th away from Ondrej Jezek, only to crash again when his glove snagged his broken brake lever.
“Obviously, I am gutted about what happened in the race,” said Lowes.
“We have been really strong all this weekend, I was second overall after Thursday’s practice and we made another step today for SP2 to make it two consecutive front row starts.
“I was feeling really confident I could battle for the podium during the race. I had a good start from the middle of the front row on the grid and, honestly, felt really good during the race, battling with the guys for second.
“I gave it everything to catch and pass Chaz, but I just pushed too hard and lost the front at Turn 16.
“Of course, I wasn’t going to give up and managed to rejoin and fight my back before somehow my glove got caught on the damaged brake level and I crashed again.”
Team-mate Michael van der Mark – who is battling the Briton for fifth in the standings – also crashed when he misjudged Sykes’ speed through Turn 9 and tagged the rear of his Kawasaki.
Struggling in the opening laps for pace, the Dutchman steadily regained form and felt he could have fought for his second podium finish of the season.
“To be honest, at the beginning I was struggling with the pace a bit; I just didn’t have the speed to follow the guys in front,” he said.
“But, as the race went on, I was getting faster and faster and building my confidence with the bike.
“Unfortunately, through Turn 9 I was aiming to pass Tom Sykes into Turn 10, but we had completely different mid-corner speeds and I hit him quite hard – luckily, he didn’t crash.
“It is a really shame as I think we could have been in the top five, if not battling for the podium.”
