Speed Up’s Sam Lowes had to battle back from almost dead last to 16th place after getting nerfed off in a first-corner domino crash which saw the Moto2 rookie run over by Franco Morbidelli.
Caterham’s Josh Herrin was tailgated and forced into the side of the reigning World Supersport Champion right at the apex of the uphill first turn and Morbidelli had nowhere to go but over Lowes’ hip.
After re-joining, Lowes was lapping as fast as the men in the top five and clawed his way back to just outside the points, which he missed by just two seconds but said he should have never put himself in the position to be taken out in the first place.
“At the end of the day racing’s racing, this happens and it is nobody’s fault. I don’t know what happened exactly as I was hit from behind but I will take responsibility for qualifying that far down,” said a pragmatic Lowes, speaking at Austin.
“I’m not going to start making excuses, I shouldn’t have been in that position in the first place. I got knocked off but I dug in and my fastest lap was half a second quicker than qualifying. I think I could have fought well into the top ten.”
