Alex Lowes looked on fire at the start of the weekend at Imola as his name was near the top of the time sheets throughout the Practice sessions. However, in the races his pace faltered and he struggled to get a strong position.

Alex Lowes ended Friday second overall in the standings at Imola, only being beaten by Michael Ruben Rinaldi. Lowes showed strong pace around Imola on his Kawasaki and looked like he could be competitive throughout the weekend.

However, in the races the 32-year-old seemed to struggle with the high temperatures and only managed to finish two races out of the three. In the two races that he finished Lowes was 9th and 7th overall, not the positions he would have been expecting on Friday evening. Lowes crashed out of the final race of the weekend ending what should have been a strong round on a low note.

"In Race One, my start was OK and I held my position," said Alex Lowes after the races. "But I was stuck at the back of a group and I couldn’t fight and move forward. I felt my pace was better than where I was riding, but I was stuck. We struggled a bit for rear grip, especially on the edge, but the track temperature was quite high.

"The track conditions were really hot, which means the grip is reduced. We made some changes on the bike to try to give me a bit more feeling, and help getting the bike stopped. In morning warm-up and in the Superpole Race I was really happy with the step we had made.

"I was looking for a little bit of a better feeling for Race Two. After struggling so much in Race One, today we used the SCX tyre. It was moving quite a lot on the edge but my performance overall in the race was so much better so it is so frustrating to finish with a crash at Turn Seven. A first gear, small crash.

"The improvements that the team made on the bike were really big compared to yesterday. So it is such a shame not to be able to take the positives from the second race. But we did our best and I am already looking forward to Most in a couple of weeks."