Alex Lowes was happy with this debut MotoGP qualifying performance after securing sixteenth place on tomorrow’s grid, one place behind his Monster Yamaha Tech 3 teammate Pol Espargaro.
The Briton showed impressive pace in the wet conditions, even going fastest at one stage during Q1, and although there were areas he could have done better, he couldn’t be too downhearted.
“I’m pleased. It was hard going into FP4 and qualifying because it was the first time I’d ridden the bike in the wet. In qualifying, I was probably thinking a bit too much about the bike and maybe changing something but we had fifteen minutes so after the session I was thinking maybe I didn’t do as well as I could’ve done. Then afterwards, I looked at the situation and it was my first 15-20 laps on the bike in the wet. To be this close, given it’s my first time, is quite good.”
This weekend has already been a baptism of fire for the Yamaha World Superbike rider and he admits that the lack of dry track-time in FP4 will make the race even more challenging.
“Tomorrow’s going to be difficult again because I didn’t get FP4 to put in a lot of consistent laps in the dry. It will be a difficult race to manage the bike and the settings. There are lot more things you have to manage in a race than in superbikes. In FP3, I made quite a good step compared to yesterday so it will be interesting to see how I get on tomorrow.”
His brother Sam also heaped praise on him after qualifying with the future Aprilia Gresini rider impressed with Alex’s competitiveness at such an early stage.
“I’ve had a couple of rides on a MotoGP bike and I can tell you, it isn’t easy to understand straight away so I think he’s doing a really good job. This is the top class for a reason, it’s really difficult, and he’s doing a good job.”
