How Hungary WorldSBK’s pivotal incident destroyed one Ducati rider’s Sunday

Sam Lowes has explained how the pivotal incident on the first lap of the Hungarian WorldSBK Superpole Race affected the rest of his Sunday at Balaton Park.

A number of riders were notably affected by the incident, which brought out the red flags and shortened the Superpole Race to eight laps. 

Firstly, and most obviously, Miguel Oliveira was ruled out of Race 2 with a concussion, and Andrea Locatelli got a double long lap penalty that cost him a chance to finish in the top-nine and therefore put him on the fifth row of the grid for Race 2, which he crashed out of.

Additionally, Iker Lecuona was in position to take his first win in World Superbike in the first start because Nicolo Bulega had had a poor half-lap and was buried mid-pack while he was second with only Lorenzo Baldassarri ahead of him. After the restart, Bulega led from start to finish for his 15th straight win, giving him a pole position from which he made the holeshot in Race 2, going on to win his 16th consecutive race.

Sam Lowes, too, was affected. It was his Ducati that Locatelli made contact with to cause the crash in the first place, and for Lowes the affects were felt for the rest of the day.

On the restart, he had a gear shift problem which meant he finished down in 20th. Therefore, he started Race 2 11th and only got back to sixth after a poor start from the middle of the grid.

“When I had the contact with Locatelli, the team didn’t see but we damaged some parts of the bike for the gear shift with the quickshifter,” Sam Lowes told WorldSBK.com after Race 2.

“I didn’t notice it going slow, but when I started to push I missed a lot of gears in upshift and downshift, so into the chicanes I was staying in fourth gear rather than managing to get the gear back, so at that point it was finished. 

“When we stripped the bike down after – you can’t in the short period [of the red flag] – we realised that this thing was bent.”

The incident itself was one Lowes couldn’t avoid, he explained, as he was already on the inside of the track and couldn’t see either Locatelli or Oliveira as he was hanging off the inside of the bike mid-corner.

“It’s quite funny because in the first laps these two riders are always very aggressive, which I think is quite good, honestly, I like the way they approach it.

“I was on my racing line, I couldn’t go any [further] right because [of the kerb] and I was looking [through the corner], and I felt the contact. For me, it was a racing incident, I was surprised that Loka [Andrea Locatelli] got a penalty, honestly, but I think it was no one’s real fault.

“It’s the nature of the track: they were both deep, and when you’re deep on the first lap, to come back onto the racing line is complicated; also, the guys behind won’t close the gas, so it was a bit of just the same [asphalt] at the same time. 

“So, I really hope Miguel’s okay, I never like to see that, and like I said I like the way they approach the first lap, it’s aggressive but it’s how it should be. I hope he’s okay, and I hope Loka’s okay, too, because I know he had a crash in the second one.”

The issue was fixed for Race 2 but a poor getaway meant Lowes was playing catch-up from the start.

“Starting in the middle of the grid, I got a bad start in the last race and when you’re in the group fighting you overheat the front tyre, overheat the brakes – just couldn’t get the rhythm to start with,” he explained.

“Towards the end of the race I wasn’t too bad, I could recover some positions and finish sixth. 

“It’s really true: when you can start at the front and make the rhythm, the bike works quite well; different when you’re in the group and fighting, it’s a more fun race but not the best for the result. 

“Overall I’m happy, we struggled this morning, we had a problem with the bike so it’s a bit unlucky for everyone. Not the Sunday I wanted but still some solid points.”