Alex Lowes scored his fifth and sixth podiums of the season at his home round of WorldSBK at Donington, something he considered reason enough to be "happy" with his weekend.

Lowes was competitive from the beginning at Donington, and should have qualified on the front row for Race 1 and the Superpole Race, but for his best lap to be cancelled leaving him ninth on the grid. Nonetheless, he was able to finish second in Race 1, passing Nicolo Bulega and then holding off Alvaro Bautista late on, and then a fourth place in the Superpole Race gave him a better platform - the second row - from which to launch his Race 2 podium assault. Beaten by Bulega, Lowes rounded out his WorldSBK UK Round weekend with a third place and his sixth podium of the year.

Following Race 2 on Sunday, Lowes said: “In the Superpole Race this morning, with less fuel on board and with some riders going with the (super-soft) ‘X’ rear tyre, everybody was fast. From third or fourth to 15th, almost everybody had the same speed. So, it's quite stressful. If you didn't attack you got attacked!

"It was quite difficult because I was tenth on the first lap and it was hard to make passes. But, I was fifth at the end and that helped me to move up one grid row for Race Two.

"In the final race I got stuck behind Scott Redding, who was trying to go away, but was probably sliding a bit more than me. I tried to make the move and passed him, but up ahead Nicolo Bulega did a great job in second place. He was so consistent.

"Every time I gained a bit he had enough in his pocket to pull away. It was a little bit of a boring race in terms of action but we were on the limit all the same - doing 1’26s lap times.

"I am happy with the second podium and I think we had a good strong weekend, despite starting back a bit on the grid. I am happy enough with the weekend.”

Axel Bassani's weekend stood out, but for different reasons to Lowes. The Italian, who has generally seemed to progress with Kawasaki so far in his debut campaign in green, especially with his seventh place in Race 2 at Misano, was never a top six threat let along a podium contender at Donington, with his best result, a 10th place, coming in Race 2.

Bassani, who retired from the Superpole Race for the second round in a row at Donington, said: “In the Superpole Race we had some technical problems and we only completed the first lap. Race Two was better but it was difficult to start from the back.

"I think we had quite good pace but I lost a little bit of time in the last five or six laps. The earlier pace was around the same as the riders in sixth or seventh position. I had a better feeling with the bike, for sure, in Race 2 but we need to improve in some places.

"We will stay positive and I want to say thank you to the team for continuing to work and for the good job they did this weekend. We will race again together soon in Most.”