Lowes ‘honoured’ with Yamaha win after ‘hard to take’ Donington

Alex Lowes has toasted his maiden World Superbike race win with Pata Yamaha after having to grit his tenth when teammate Michael van der Mark secured the team’s first wins last time out at his home round.

Last month Lowes applauded van der Mark’s dominant double victory at Donington Park to secure his first World Superbike wins and Yamaha’s first in the series since 2011 but admitted his frustration at missing out on the honour.

Lowes ‘honoured’ with Yamaha win after ‘hard to take’ Donington

Alex Lowes has toasted his maiden World Superbike race win with Pata Yamaha after having to grit his tenth when teammate Michael van der Mark secured the team’s first wins last time out at his home round.

Last month Lowes applauded van der Mark’s dominant double victory at Donington Park to secure his first World Superbike wins and Yamaha’s first in the series since 2011 but admitted his frustration at missing out on the honour.

But the British rider bounced back in superb style with a flawless race two in Brno to take his first-ever World Superbike win, ahead of van der Mark is second, to maintain Yamaha’s mid-season momentum looking close the performance gap to the likes of Kawasaki and Ducati.

Lowes has thanked his Crescent Racing-run Yamaha squad, having made the move from the British Superbike championship with the team, in a potentially difficult race in hot temperatures which made the circuit slippery.

“The first thing I need to say is a massive thanks to Yamaha, to the team and especially Paul who believed in me and brought me here from BSB,” Lowes said. “All the guys worked so hard to give me what I wanted on the bike. For me to win and Michael to come second for a Yamaha 1-2 is fantastic.

“On a personal level I’m so happy, Donington was hard to take, not to take anything away from Michael but it was tough for me to accept as I wanted to be the one to get the first win for the team as I felt like I’ve put so much into the project.

“The bike worked really well for me today, I really enjoyed the race, which is not easy when it’s so hot and slippery.

“I focused on being as smooth and consistent as I could be and now I’m over the moon. A massive thank you to Yamaha, I feel honoured to be part of this project and now we need to keep trying to win more races.”

Yamaha has now clinched three wins in the past four World Superbike races with both van der Mark comfortably in the top six of the riders’ standings.

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