Little tip off becomes big crash but Lowes proves fast at home

Alex Lowes rewarded his Pata Yamaha team with a run to second quickest in free practice for the World Superbike Championship at Donington Park after a small-turned-big crash necessitated a rebuild between sessions.

The Briton was on the pace from the start as he looks to impress on home soil this weekend but having worked his way up to third place in FP1, he slid off on a cold tyre at the Craner Curves late on in the session, the R1 digging into the grass and spiralling end-over-end before coming to rest.

Apologising to his Crescent Racing team for some ‘unexpected extra work’, he was straight back on the pace in FP2 and would come within 0.18secs of getting the better of Friday pace setter Tom Sykes on the BMW.

"It's great to be here and riding in front of my home crowd. I feel really good on the bike, even with the little tip off this morning. I say little, but you don't have a small crash at Craner Curves.

“It was my mistake; I crashed on a cold tyre after a slow lap, so sorry to the guys for giving them some unexpected extra work today.

“This afternoon the bike felt good again, but I still want to improve the braking phase a bit more tomorrow, to give me a little more margin. It's been a positive day, I'm happy with where we are."