Lowes: I’ve rode well all year honestly, nice to be on the podium

Lowes, who produced another stunning WorldSBK qualifying lap in order to position himself on the front row, had to recover from a lack of speed at the beginning before reeling in the BMW rider.

Along with Redding struggling for grip in the closing stages, Alvaro Bautista’s race one mistake also played a part in helping Lowes secure his first podium of the season, however, the performance Lowes has shown so far this weekend has arguably warranted such a result.

Despite a tough opening few laps, Lowes wasn’t the only Kawasaki rider who seemed to be affected when it came to raw pace as Rea, who went into the race as the clear favourite, was no match for eventual winner Toprak Razgatlioglu and Bautista before the Ducati rider crashed at Goddards. 

“When the temperature goes up even if it’s by 10 degrees our bike starts to struggle,” said Lowes. “It doesn’t seem to affect the others as much. 

“I didn’t have the speed that I expected [to have] in the race, but with the pace I had I managed to keep it until the end and I had a nice battle with Scott [Redding]. 

“He was smoking the rear tyre and I was thinking I’m going to have more grip than him in a couple of laps. 

“It was a nice battle and I was able to save a little bit of tyre for the last few laps. It’s nice to be on the podium and getting the podium because of Alvaro’s mistake; I wanted to get the podium with genuine [pace], but we weren’t far off it.” 

‘No way Redding was going to let me past for a podium’ - Lowes

With Redding also in the hunt for his first podium of the season and first with BMW, the battle between Lowes and the former Ducati rider was intense. 

Redding was keen to snap straight back at Lowes, especially as the BMW rider knew he was encountering rear grip issues. 

When asked if he planned the overtake or just wanted to get through as soon as possible, Lowes added: “To start I just saw him sliding so much and I knew he was going to struggle for grip. 

“Then all of a sudden he just dropped on the entry to the corners. There was no way he was just going to let me ride past for a podium because he’s done a great weekend and BMW has improved a lot. 

“He wanted to get his first BMW podium so every time I passed him I knew the next corner he was going to come straight back. 

“But that’s what it’s about. When I passed him at turn three I just tried to make sure that I was enough passed because there were a couple of corners where he couldn’t get passed and I could make a little bit of a gap. 

“It was a little bit aggressive but no, it was fine. I enjoyed it and it was a shame he lost grip because he was coming back to Jonathan [Rea] at times. It’s nice to be on the podium and I think I’ve rode well all year honestly.”

Superpole lap ‘one of the best’ of Lowes’ WorldSBK career

While Lowes showed strong pace, especially towards the end, his first podium of 2022 was helped by a stunning lap in Superpole.

The Brit was one of four riders to go underneath the existing lap record, while finishing as the only rider within three tenths of Rea. 

"Ahh look, I enjoyed it so much! It was one of the best laps I’ve ever done," said Lowes. 

"Everyone was going slow like in Moto3 and me and Johnny [Rea] were going to do one in front [of the other] on either tyre because we did it a couple of times last year and it worked quite well, but everyone waited for him to go out. 

"I was on the harder tyre on the first run so I knew with the softer tyre I was going to be faster. I just thought ‘let’s get some clear track’ and when I did a 26.3 I was like ‘that was good’!"