Soaring track temperatures at the Jerez MotoGP round caused British Moto2 title contender Sam Lowes some difficulties in today’ second practice session but he remains upbeat as the race should be run in cooler conditions.
Lowes did a majority of the second session, when the track temperature was 44°C, on a used hard compound tyre and ended up half a second off the pace but in the morning, at time closer to when the race will be run, he was second and only a tenth off with the tarmac at a relatively cool 33°C.
The Derby-based rider also said that had he used a new tyre at the end of the second session, it would have pulled him back another couple of tenths, so he isn’t a long way away in warmer conditions.
“We struggled a lot with the heat this afternoon but this morning I was fast and felt really good. We tried a lot of things this afternoon, different link, pivots, shock and we weren’t too far away,” said Lowes, speaking at Jerez.
“We were only a couple of tenths off the top five and to be fair I would have been 0.2, 0.3 off with a new tyre so it’s not that bad. In the winter here, when it was cold, we were really fast, so that’s something we need to work on.
“The race is 12.20, so the track will be a lot cooler. When the track is cooler and more grippy we have an advantage but when it gets hot, at the first throttle touch the rear is spinning. We tried a pivot at the end which made the bike a bit more stable.”
