Alex Lowes puzzled by WorldSBK Race 2 issue - “We don’t know”

Alex Lowes entered WorldSBK Race 2 at Magny-Cours with a seemingly clear shot at winning the race, but an issue on the first lap meant he was out of contention almost immediately.

Lowes ran wide at turn eight on the first lap, seemingly with gear selection issues. He dropped to 19th, and recovered to fourth.

“I had some issue with the bike, I felt like it was a major issue, so I pulled the clutch and went off the racing line,” Lowes told Eurosport after the race. “Then I played with some buttons, tried to keep going.”

Lowes said that it’s not clear what the issue was, although a clutch problem is a possibility.

“We don’t know, but it could’ve been with the clutch — the clutch gets hot off the start and doing my shifts on the first lap,” he explained.

Overall, Lowes’ Sunday was positive, with his 19th-to-fourth run in Race 2 coming after a second place in the Superpole Race, in which he fought for victory throughout with Nicolo Bulega.

“To be disappointed with second and fourth after yesterday’s race means we’re doing well,” Lowes said. “Obviously, there’s a few guys out of the race, I wish them all the best.

“The bike was working well. If I take out all the expectation of a race like that — you’re passing a lot of guys, you’re feeling good on the bike, the race goes from being a long race to being a really fast race — the bike was great, but I feel like we missed the opportunity to maybe fight with [Nicolo] Bulega (who won Race 2 by over two seconds).

“I didn’t check the lap times but I felt quite strong. [I’ll] take the positives and move on to Cremona. I enjoyed it, just disappointed with fourth in that one.”

Lowes was not certain that without the lap one problem he would have won, but suggested that he felt he could be in the battle for the win without it.

“To win a race is difficult,” he said. “But I would’ve been in the mix. [...] Disappointed, because it’s a missed opportunity; I’ve been doing the game a long time and I’ve not had too many opportunities to win races in WorldSBK.”