Alex Lowes after first race wins in four years: ‘Unbelievable day, Race 2 was chaos’

Alex Lowes was unstoppable in the WorldSBK Superpole Race before a last-lap overtake on Alvaro Bautista sealed his second win in a row.

Speaking after his double, Lowes said: “It was an unbelievable day! The second race was chaos from the start. It was a little bit delayed, and in the first part of the race Toprak’s bike blew up.  

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“I was nearly off track, I did well to stay on. Then, Jonathan had a big crash, so I hope he’s okay. I was dropping back a little bit, but just before the red flag, I had a couple of good sectors to get back on my brother. 

“I had some good speed, and the temperature was down a little bit. My focus in the restart was to make a good start, put myself in the first three or four positions.

“I knew Toprak wasn’t there, and when he is, you have to ride a little bit more defensively because he’s always going to have a pass.

“Once I got settled into the race, I was struggling to stay with Bautista a little bit and Michael.”

Like his efforts in the Superpole Race, Lowes grew stronger as the race went on and beginning pressuring Bautista with just a few laps to go.

Lowes himself came under pressure from Andrea Locatelli who appeared to have greater speed than the top two.

But after a mistake from Locatelli resulted in him highsiding out of contention, Lowes then charged past Bautista with a brave move at turn nine.

Talking about the closing stages, Lowes added: “Locatelli passed me at Turn 4. He was going to hit the back of Bautista, so he went wide and then I managed to stay on the line, stay close to 

“Alvaro because, in my head, I was thinking he was struggling to enter the corner because the grip was going. I knew I could be really fast through Turn 8 and into Turn 9.

“This was my chance to pass him and try to stop the bike into Turn 10 and 11. I had a little plan, and it went quite well. 

“In the end, I had a lot more grip than Alvaro which allowed me to make this pass.”