Alex Lowes realistic about French WorldSBK chances, qualifying "important"

Magny-Cours is one of the staples of the WorldSBK calendar, but going there with a new bike presents challenges – challenges faced this weekend by Alex Lowes with the Bimota KB998.

Fortunately for Lowes, he was able to get plenty of running in on Friday at the French circuit thanks to dry weather in both FP1 and FP2.

Finishing sixth in the afternoon session, Lowes was pleased with the work he managed to do on Friday.

“It’s been a nice Friday, it’s a track I really enjoy,” said Alex Lowes, speaking to WorldSBK.com.

“The first time here with the Bimota and two good sessions, the weather’s been nice to us, plenty of laps in both sessions, a lot of data.

“I rode with my brother quite a lot this afternoon, so that was good fun; it looked like a training session we’ve been doing in the past couple of weeks.

“So, I enjoyed it, I felt like my pace was pretty good. We can be happy with our day’s work and I’m looking forward to getting back racing tomorrow after the summer break.”

Despite the positive first day, Lowes was realistic about his pace and his chances for the races, feeling the likes of Sam Lowes, and World Superbike title contenders Toprak Razgatlioglu and Nicolo Bulega, are a step ahead of him.

“I think if I can have a good qualifying and get behind the group, I think I can stay there – I’ve done a lot of laps on used tyres,” he said.

“But, honestly, my out-and-out pace is a little bit behind those guys [Razgatlioglu, Bulega, and Sam Lowes].

“Qualifying is going to be important, the start of the race, and let’s see if we can improve tonight.

“Obviously, the first experience on this track with this bike – hopefully we can make some steps forward with the setting, tweak it a little bit, and close the gap for tomorrow.”

Being more specific, Lowes said he would like to improve in braking.

“There’s some parts of the track I’m really fast,” he said.

“The bike’s changing direction really well.

“I would like to improve the stopping of the bike, I’m on the limit of it too much, so if I can improve that I’ll be quite happy. So, that’s an area we’re going to focus on tonight.”