WorldSBK Catalunya Test: Lowes ‘enjoying riding, ready to race’

While rain stopped play in Barcelona, Alex Lowes enjoyed a successful day and a half with his Kawasaki WorldSBK ZX10-RR.

A now fully fit Lowes spent the majority of the Catalunya test working on set-up ahead of the Motorland Aragon season opener in a fortnight’s time. Setting his fastest lap, a 1’41.664, in Friday’s warm and dry conditions, Lowes completed 136 laps across the available track time before calling it a day as the rain arrived.

“It’s been nice to get back on the bike,” Lowes said from Spain. “Seven weeks since the Portimao test so Friday morning it took a few laps to get up to speed. We did 100 laps, so we’re certainly back up to speed now!

“We had a good first day here. We did a lot of laps, consistent laps, and confirmed a lot of the changes we had made in the previous winter tests. This morning we were limited on track time, and we wanted to try some different things on the back of the bike.

“The forecast had been quite bad so we were happy to get the good laps we did on the final day. The laps we did get were better than we expected after the weather forecast.

“I wasn’t quite up to speed but in terms of enjoying riding the bike, it’s such a good, fun track to ride. There’s lots of long corners where you’re sliding, it’s not good for the lap time but in terms of just riding the bike and enjoying riding it, it was mega!

“I am ready to go now in Motorland Aragon in a couple of weeks. It has been nice to do a proper test with lots of good laps. My previous injuries feel good, my body feels good and that means I am ready to go racing.”

“Catalunya has always been hard for us in the past, but we arrived here with a clear idea about what our base bike would be for the first race in Aragon,” Marcel Duinker, Crew