Alex Lowes: Phillip Island pit stop rule “strange”

World Superbike’s announcement in January that it would be maintaining its mandatory pit stop rule for its race in Phillip Island has been labelled as “strange” by Alex Lowes.

The reason for the British rider’s questioning of the mandatory pit stop – enforced due to concerns over tyre durability at the Australian circuit – is because of the durability of the tyres shown on the first day of the preseason test at Phillip Island today (Monday 17 February), with Lowes himself saying that his best laps were done on 10-lap-old tyres.

“But I didn’t use many tyres, my best laps were with like 10 laps on the tyres; looking at the sheets, maybe the other guys are the same,” Lowes said at the end of the first day of the Phillip Island test, which concluded with the British rider sixth on the timesheets.

“The times aren’t really dropping,” he continued, “which I was surprised about because we have the pit stop.

“But it looks like the tyres are lasting [as well as] they ever have since I’ve been [racing at] Phillip Island, so it’s strange that we do the pit stop.

“I think everybody for 10 laps is going to be really fast, it’s going to be close, it’s going to be tight, and we have a few days to prepare for battle.”

The Bimota rider is sure of the manufacturer that looks the strongest in Australia after the first of two days of WorldSBK testing.

“It was the first World Superbike race I think for Nicolo Bulega here last year and he won,” he said, “and [Andrea] Iannone was the first race back [after] a long time and he was already really fast. So, I think they’re going to be very difficult to beat.

“Danilo [Petrucci] looked great, Alvaro [Bautista] is always strong at this track – he nearly won last year and he looks like he’s had a better feeling this year.

“So, it’s certainly going to be tough to fight the Ducatis, but not impossible.

“The race is always different here, there’s a long way to go until the race, and I will do my best to try to be in the fight and enjoy it.

“If not, we need a solid weekend for the first one back in the World Superbike Championship for Bimota.”