Alex Lowes “useless” in key area at Phillip Island WorldSBK test

Alex Lowes says there was one area where he was “useless” during the WorldSBK test at Phillip Island.

Lowes and his Bimota teammate Axel Bassani were both in the top-six at the end of the World Superbike test at Phillip Island, ahead of the race there this weekend on 20–22 February.

This came despite the British rider having felt “pretty useless” in sector three on Tuesday afternoon.

“[I want to] try to improve a little bit in sector three,” Alex Lowes said, speaking to WorldSBK.com. 

“I was pretty useless this afternoon in that part of the track, which normally I’m quite fast, so I was clearly doing something wrong there. 

“I’ve been doing this a long time, I try not to get too excited at the test, I didn’t make any mistakes, quite constant, and now we need to find that little bit more performance for this first race of the year.”

Podium potential

Lowes, a three-time WorldSBK race winner at Phillip Island, feels he could be in with a shot at the podium after the test, despite the issues he faced in sector three on Tuesday.

It’s an opinion he shares with BMW’s Danilo Petrucci, who was impressed during the test by the lap times of both Bimota riders as well as the speed of the KB998 in the straight.

But the Lowes knows that there will be plenty of other riders in contention for the rostrum, although he feels a bar-to-bar battle would suit him.

“I’ve had a lot worse tests in Phillip Island and managed to get on the podium, if not a bit better,” he said.

“So, I would say it’s probably one of my more positive two days of test. So, why not [get on the podium this year]? 

“I think we shouldn’t be too far away, there’s 10 guys that could be on the podium – we know how tight World Superbike is. It’s going to be a dogfight. “

“I think Bulega is going to have the pace to go away; maybe my brother [Sam Lowes] can go with him, hopefully, and the rest of us are going to have a ding-dong and a big fight. That’ll suit me, so I’m looking forward to it.”