Alex Lowes is satisfied with a fourth place at Estoril, but wanted to be closer to a podium fight with Alvaro Bautista.

Ahead of the Estoril World Superbike Round, Alex Lowes had his sights set on a podium finish at the Portuguese circuit with the KB998 Rimini.

However, the British rider was unable to feature on the rostrum, and his best result of the weekend was a fourth place in the final race of the weekend. In the other two races, Lowes was able to pick up a fifth place in Race One, and scored no points in the Superpole Race after finishing in 15th.

When focusing on his Race Two performance, Lowes was satisfied with fourth, but would like to be closer to the podium fight with Alvaro Bautista.

"It was a positive final race, P4 close-ish to the podium, it was like a track of two halves," Lowes told WorldSBK.com after Race Two at Estoril.

"My bike was working really well through Turns six, seven, eight, nine, and ten, all through that section. Alvaro [Bautista] was a bit better in the first and maybe second sector, so the gap was yo-yoing, and I was finding it difficult to keep a rhythm because I was so quick on some parts and slow at other parts.

"It was a tough race, but I am happy with a fourth place. Obviously, you always want to be a bit closer to the fight for the podium. I really tried with six or seven laps to go, to be a bit faster on the back of Alvaro, but I had some big slides on the front.

"So after my tip off this morning [in the Superpole Race], I thought 'OK, let's not do it twice in one day'. I decided to let's say settle for fourth place, and I am happy with that, and the job the team did today."

Lowes was on for a top-five finish in the Superpole Race on Sunday morning, but he crashed while in fourth place. However, he was able to rejoin and finished in 15th, but scored no points.

"The Superpole Race was a fun race to be honest," he explained.

"I was battling through all the race, and it is not chaos, but it is so tight nowadays in the second group, because Toprak [Razgatlioglu] and Nicolo [Bulega] are a step in front. But from third to tenth, any of the guys can fight for the top positions.

"I felt quite good, I was biding my time, Xavi Vierge was on the Q tyre so he was fast at the start, and there were people passing. Once it settled down, I felt I could be quite strong, and my pace was stronger than what I was trying to do.

"I tried to pass [Andrea] Locatelli into Turn One, and then have a really good last lap. As I passed him, I released the front brake too fast and lost the front. It is easy to do at Turn One, annoying to make that mistake on the last lap because I put myself in a good position during that race."