Samsung Honda’s Alex Lowes stuck to the harder of the two Pirelli rear tyres in this afternoon's second MCE British Superbike free practice session at Snetterton after struggling with longevity on the softer compound.

Rising track temperatures meant he wasn't able to match the laps set this morning but the Derby rider is using the harder SC2 option as a back up so needed to get some laps under his belt. He did dip into the 1'49s in two occasions but was running consistent 1'50s for the session.

“I was on a harder tyre this afternoon, I was struggling a bit for tyre life so I was trying to make use it and see how fast I could go on. That is what I was doing when the temperature went up. I don’t think I was quite where I need to be, so I am going to try and make the softer tyre last tomorrow,” said Lowes, speaking to bikesportnews.com at the circuit.

“ It is a bit annoying because I went as fast as I could on a the softer SC1 and it would be a lot easier for me and the times are coming quite easy. I am doing more laps than anyone else and I am just trying to understand what we can do to make the bike better for the race, but we will be alright, but we need to try and work the tyre situation out.

“The annoying thing is that last week at the test I did a whole race simulatin in the 1’49’s on a softer tyre, but the track is wearing the tyres a lot more this weekend which is so frustrating as it made all the work we did at the test irrelevant.

“I want a bike I can race and do the full laps and the tyres won’t go off, but tyre life is part of it and keeping sharp and understand what we need to do, and hopefully we have a tyre we can race to the end and have a good battle on Saturday.”