Alex Lowes claims there are still areas that he can improve in despite topping the timesheets on both days of the official pre-season test at Phillip Island. The Voltcom Crescent Suzuki rider has paid tribute to his team for leaving no stone unturned over the winter and believes he can extract even more speed from the GSX-R1000 this weekend with some minor tweaks to his own riding.
“We’ve had a good day and got through a detailed test programme, there’s not too much that we wanted to try that we haven’t really, so it’s been a difficult two days for the mechanics working really hard! The GSX-R is pretty good now, we’ll make a few changes over the weekend depending on the temperature and some minor things to try with electronics and the chassis but the biggest improvement still to come is from me and I know a few areas I can ride differently. I enjoyed it a lot today, did a race-run, put a lot of effort in and tried to keep within the limits. Thanks to the lads for all the hard work; hopefully we’ll keep progressing over the race weekend.”
Teammate Randy de Puniet played little part in the final day after crashing heavily on Monday and the Frenchman is now doing everything he can to be fit for his World Superbike debut this weekend.
“Nothing much to tell, the good news is nothing is broken but my back is very swollen. I had an examination today and everything looks ok. I tried to complete some laps this afternoon to get an idea of the feeling for Friday but it was so painful I only did 15 laps and decided to stop for medical treatment after one hour. Tomorrow and Thursday I will seek further treatment to try to reduce the pain but I’m confident that it will just get better day by day.”
