Britain’s Sam Lowes has fired a warning shot across the bows of the established Moto2 stars during the first qualifying session of the year at Qatar, finishing in fifth place and less than half a second slower than pole man Esteve Rabat.
Lowes, who is riding for Speed Up, swapped his rear shock after only one flying lap early on, worked on his setup and then got in the same track space as Rabat for several laps to drop his time by over a second from yesterday’s free practice times.
“We have improved the bike a little but to be honest it is me learning the track more. My best lap then was not too far away, P5. Doing that lap time didn’t feel my absolute limit, we can improve the bike a little more,” said Lowes, speaking at Qatar.
“We need to improve the drive grip which where I am losing out on these long straights as you need that. My consistency is also good, I am in the 2’01s all the time so we’re in good shape.”
Lowes ended with a 2’00.547 on his 13th lap of 15 in a session that was red flagged at the end of the session when Mika Kallio crashed into Sandro Cortese’s prone Dynavolt Suter. Cortese had slid off and his bike carried out but re-joined before dropping right on an apex and Kallio smashed into it. Neither suffered serious injury.
Kallio, who ended in sixth despite the crash, shares a garage with Rabat who set a circuit best record with his 2’00.181. Cortese was 0.020s slower with Taka Nakagami in third and Thomas Luthi in fourth.
Gino Rea ended the session in 24th, just ahead of Axel Pons.
