Alex Lowes explains Australian WorldSBK Race 2 crash: “I didn’t have rear grip”

After finishing third in the Superpole Race at the Australian WorldSBK, Alex Lowes says it was a “shame” not to finish Race 2.

Lowes crashed out in the closing stages of the second full-distance race of the World Superbike season opener at Phillip Island. He went down at turn one, crashing out of fifth while trying to catch Tarran Mackenzie and challenge for fourth.

It was a quick off, Lowes said afterwards, but one that happened because of a setup decision made before the race.

“I’m more or less okay,” Alex Lowes told WorldSBK.com after Race 2 in Australia.

“Fast crash, honestly, but we just went with a dry bike softened off and I didn’t have any rear grip. 

“It’s really easy now to say ‘You should’ve put the full wet setting’, but this place dries so fast and the weather changes so fast. So, hindsight in racing is fantastic. We chose one way, it didn’t work. 

“I nearly crashed probably five or six times, so it’s like I was trying to crash, almost, and unfortunately crashed at turn one. 

“Didn’t really do too much different, just had no grip on the rear, [it] escaped really fast. But luckily I’m okay. 

“Shame for the conditions in Race 2, shame not to be able to bring the bike home, but overall a positive weekend and it’s nice to be fighting at the front to start our championship.”

“Really proud” Superpole Race podium

Lowes’ crash followed his first podium of the season in the Superpole Race, just beating Yari Montella to third place.

It was a satisfying result for Lowes after making major bike changes after slumping to seventh in Race 1 the day before.

“We’ve been struggling a bit this week to really find our base setting,” he said.

“I’d say it was probably one of the biggest changes I’ve made from Saturday to Sunday. 

“So, I was quite happy to be immediately fast in Warm Up, fast in the Superpole Race; I slowed down a little bit too much when it started raining, but my pace was good to the end, I managed to hold off the Ducatis, had a good race with my brother for a couple of laps.”

Lowes’ third place in the 10-lapper came along with a second place for Axel Bassani. It was the first double-podium for Bimota since the first year of World Superbike in 1988 – also at Phillip Island – when Stephane Mertens won and Davide Tardozzi was second.

“That’s even older than me,” Lowes joked. “Really proud of it. Axel’s [Bassani] been fast all week. 

“The old thing in racing [is]: you want to beat your teammate. But the reality is if your teammate is 15th and your fifth or sixth– what you really want is races like today where you’re both battling for top-fives, both battling for podiums. 

“So, this was a pleasure, really happy for him, happy for the team, and it’s a good challenge for me to try to improve for Portugal.”

On the Portuguese Round on 27–29 March, Lowes added: “Looking forward to getting back to Europe. We worked hard at the end of last year, we were strong; winter testing before Christmas went strong with some changes on the bike. 

“We have a test before [9–10 March], looking forward to the test and working hard. Try to be on the podium there.”