Sam Lowes stepping up in MotoGP

Sam Lowes may have scored his first MotoGP points at Le Mans, but the Aprilia rookie feels last weekend's Mugello round was his first 'real' race.

The Englishman crossed the line 20th out of 21 finishers in Italy, but gained plenty of positions during the early stages.

"The results are not there yet, but the last few races have been better," Lowes said at Catalunya on Thursday. "Mugello, especially the first 10 laps, was a lot, lot stronger. I managed to come forward, pass five or six guys and actually be in a race for the first time really this year.

"It's just laps on the bike, changing my riding style and this will be the first weekend where I'm riding the same bike as the week before. That's definitely really good for me to have a bit of consistency; riding the same bike rather than trying different things. Just changing my style as well and getting used to MotoGP. It's not easy.

"If you look at the results and the distance I've been finishing from first place, I'm actually doing a similar job to Bautista and Bradl [last year]. This year the competition is a bit closer. Every race is different, so you can't always look at it like that, but I'm not just wobbling round compared to last year's guys.

"And at the minute I'm on the same engine they had.

"The chassis is a little bit different, but the bike is similar, so I feel I'm not doing such a bad job. Don't get me wrong, I need to be doing a lot better. I feel I can do a lot better and I feel like the potential is a lot more. But it's not as bad as maybe it looks, if you just look at the results."

Lowes said he still needs to work on picking the bike up earlier on the exit of the corners, but is pleased with how he now compares for braking, after making dramatic changes to the amount of engine braking on the RS-GP.

"I'm picking the bike up earlier, but still need to make another step, especially here with the [low grip] track conditions," he said. "But my braking now is quite strong. Mugello has heavy braking into turn one, and consistently I was braking very similar to Alvaro last year. I'm still 3-4 metres behind Aleix but he's a really late braker. Even compared to the other guys.

"So now I'm on the level or sometimes even better than the guys from last year for braking markers, whereas at the start of the year I was 15 metres off them. I'm still not beating Aleix, but I'm not far off, especially in shorter straights. Off a longer straight he's still got a little bit of an edge on me, but a tenth or half-a-tenth rather than half-a-second.

Lowes, famous for his spectacular braking style in Moto2, added: "All winter we had no engine brake. Aleix said 'I don't want engine brake'. After Jerez we had a bit of a nightmare and I said to the guys, 'It's not working for me like this'. Especially after how I rode the Moto2 bike! So for Le Mans we made a step - I used 75% more engine brake in Le Mans than in Jerez. And then we came here testing, Aleix tried my setting and said it's mint."

Despite what would be expected - given his lack of MotoGP experience compared to team-mate Aleix Espargaro, who is in his seventh premier-class season - Lowes indicated he is doing the majority of development.

"My feedback's quite good. When we came here testing [last month] I had three A4 pages of things to test and Aleix had [one small page]. So that's really good from my side, because it shows that the team believe in my comments. Even last year in Moto2 with Ohlins.

"I don't why, because I'm a bit retarded! But actually from a feedback point of view we seem to quite good - if I could just be two-seconds a lap faster it'd all be perfect!

"But seriously, it's been a good point and a bad point for me; it'd be so much better for me just to ride and ride the same bike. I did all winter on the old bike, then did last day of Qatar test on the new bike.

"In the end I've done hardly any riding on the bike that I'm actually racing. Now I'm starting to get a bit more confident, I can adapt a bit more and mileage on the same bike."

The biggest difference between the machines of Lowes and Espargaro, who finished an excellent sixth at the Qatar season opener, is engine specification. The Spaniard running the latest, but currently less reliable, version.

"I'm two steps behind [Espargaro] but because - you don't need me to tell you, as you will have seen - it's not exactly been without issue, the other engine. So at the minute it's not much sense to put one in and 100km later be sat on the side of the track.

"But we need that to come fast because in Mugello I could hold a slipstream quite good, but after the race when you check the top speeds, I was slowest and 2.5km/h off second last.

"It's alright in Assen or whatever, but you come to Mugello where you are flat out on the straight... My engine's ok, I can hold a slipstream, but I must admit I'll be happier when I get the new engine because it is a step. And it's time for nothing, on the straight."

Lowes isn't sure when he will get the new engine, but did explain how they are trying to improve the character.

"The area we were trying to work on is the drive in the lower RPM, because honestly I feel like if it's a fast corner onto a straight we are quite competitive. But if it's a slow drive onto the straight, like Le Mans, you never make it back up. So were working on second, third, fourth gear and especially the lower RPM. We've got a lot of power but we need it to be more linear."

One area where Lowes does have the very latest developments is in terms of aerodynamics, or more specifically, Aprilia's special fairing to create 'downforce' following the external wing ban.

"I've used it since Jerez at every track. I will use it here. We look at it as a direction to go and want to work with it," Lowes said. "Maybe we will have something to try on Monday at the test, similar to this, just for the aerodynamics. So the same principle, but still not effect as much the top speed. I don't think it does too much anyway. Maybe 1-1.5km/h."

But you feel benefit of using it?

"I feel the benefit on exit of corners, especially long corners like Turn 3 here for example, you feel a lot more in the track. It's a little bit heavier to enter the corners, which is what Aleix doesn't like. But Mugello you need to get into all the corners, and it's not been too bad and I think that shows we can use it everywhere. Phillip Island I don't know, with the wind. We'll see. It might look a lot different by then."

Lowes was one of a number of riders to try the revised Catalunya layout, featuring a different chicane, during last month's private test.

"The new layout is not too dissimilar to last year, a little bit tighter. I didn't see a reason to change the chicane but it's not so bad, not very different. No big issue," he said.

"The test here was quite good. For both of us, the out-and-out lap time was maybe not the best, but the pace was quite good. I think this weekend, this race could be a little bit like Jerez, where the race distance is a battle to get through. Especially with the heat. And I think for us that could be a positive thing."

Asked for his opinion on how Lowes is adapting to MotoGP, Espargaro replied:

"I can understand that Sam is struggling because it is still a difficult bike. But if you check the times Sam is doing they are faster than Alvaro and Stefan last season, and the bike - sincerely - the colours are different, but the rest of the bike is quite similar.

"I'm not a rider who is always saying that I am very good, but sincerely where we are putting the Aprilia is not easy. The fact that I've crashed ten times - the first time in my career I've crashed like this, I think I'm the one who crashed more - is the example that I am completely at the limit of the bike.

"But Sam is very good. Really talented and he has a very positive mind so this is very important. I've no doubt he will be competitive in MotoGP."

Espargaro, who has 17 points after four non-scores from the six races, feels his bike is capable of a top five in his home round this weekend.

"I will push for top five. If you are going to do a good season you cannot have more than two 'zeros' and before the halfway stage of the season I already have four. Two engines and two crashes.

"So I don't really care about points; we need to be competitive, show we have good speed improve bike and next season is going to be the year to fight for the top six of the championship."