Lowes claims podium in 200th WorldSBK race at Donington

Alex Lowes secured his fourth WorldSBK podium of the 2021 season at Donington, which also took place in his 200th race appearance. 

Lowes had a tricky start as he dropped to seventh after qualifying fourth, but the Kawasaki rider managed to recover through to third after passing Leon Haslam, Michael Van Der Mark and Tom Sykes. 

Like his team-mate Jonathan Rea, Lowes saved several ‘slides’ on what was a damp circuit to begin with.

"I had a couple of big slides early on and even on the warm-up lap which sort of put me off a little bit. My start was really bad. I was expecting a good start but I was back in the pack and it was almost impossible to pass, because everywhere you pass there was a wet patch," said Lowes. 

"I had a couple of moments trying to pass, but I thought ‘okay, it’s a long race and I need to relax a little bit’. 

"I knew I wasn’t going to catch the first two guys, so my target was to manage the group I was in."

Lowes wasn’t the only rider who made his way through on the two BMW’s and Honda of Haslam, as Garrett Gerloff also got ahead before overtaking Lowes for third. 

However, the American crashed with a few laps to go. Lowes alluded to Gerloff having a slightly better pace during the 23 lap race; ‘but I managed to get onto the back of him’, before the mistake came.

Lowes added: "Then Garrett [Gerloff] passed me and he was a bit faster, but I managed to get straight onto the back of him. Unfortunately he made a mistake, but in the end I had a bit of a gap and I could manage it a little bit. 

"Hopefully tomorrow we can be a bit closer to the front guys. But, I'm really happy to be back on the podium. 

"We have something to build on tomorrow and I think it was my 200th race, so it was nice to get a podium for that."