There was no possibility of Kawasaki’s Alex Lowes scoring a race win in race two at Motorland on Sunday, not even when his team-mate and WorldSBK GOAT Jonathan Rea was run off track for a while.

Scott Redding had it in his pocket on his slick tyres, and rode immaculately to bag the only race win not taken by Rea in round one. Lowes had a tyre quandary, like all the rest, on the grid for the finale.

“If you go with the wet or the slick, with the wet you would have been in trouble,” he told bikesportnews.com. “If you went with the slick and it started to rain you would have been in trouble. I had no chance to stay with Scott. The grip difference was quite a lot. The track, after a few laps, was completely dry. So that was a shame.

“But, I felt good on the bike. I had a good battle. At the end I played a little bit with some settings to try to find a bit more grip and I was catching Jonathan a little bit, but I think he was still managing the gap. Three podiums to start the year on a track that I think I have one podium in a sprint race once on a Yamaha, but nothing really special. So it’s nice to start the season like that.”

Lowes was not getting carried away when complimented on his consistency and pace.

“It’s just one weekend, he explained. “We need to wait and see a few more races, but yeah. I feel good on the bike, which helps. If you’re in control of the bike you can manage the situations a little bit better. This morning in the full wet I felt good. In the dry I felt really good. In the mixed conditions we did a good job. So in all these conditions with the bike, we understand what’s happening and this puts us in a good position going forward. I really enjoyed it. I had a big smile on my face and I’m happy to be back racing.”

His old Yamaha team-mate Michael van der Mark (BMW) was one of several riders that Lowes was tussling with in Aragoin, but he got he better of all of them except Rea three times and Redding once.

“I have a good relationship with Michael,” said Lowes. “Him and Toprak, I enjoy battling with these guys a lot. I think it’s because we’ve been battling a lot, but with Michael in the past on the Yamaha it was good because when you’re battling with someone, to really understand where they are better and where you’re better, it’s difficult when you’re on the same bike.

“Whereas today at some parts I had more grip. I could see where I was better. So it made it easier for me to fight with him, but I think he’s one of the more talented guys on the grid so I hope that they have a good feeling and he can do a good job this year because he’s a good guy, a good rival.”

Lowes was a Yamaha man for years, and a Suzuki rider before that, but in his second year on the Kawasaki, what is his opinion on where the new BMW is better than his new bike, or not?

“To be honest, the bike in the straight is faster than I expected, the new bike - it looks quite fast,” said Lowes. “It looks a little bit aggressive to ride. I don’t know if it’s just these conditions, but there was smoke, especially onto the start and finish straight. Michael was in front. I could just see the VDM logo and a load of smoke from the rear tyre. I thought, ‘He’s going to start to struggle soon.’ I’m sure like any bike on the grid there’s some positives and some negatives, but you’ll have to ask him.”

It was a tricky weekend all round at Motorland, with so many changes of weather, conditions, rain. And tyre options. Plus some new experiences came from it for Lowes.

“I was just saying before that I’ve never raced on intermediates,” said Lowes. “I’ve done two races now with intermediates. This morning it was good to have the confidence to go with the intermediates. Like I said, I think it was the right choice without looking back this afternoon. I don’t think we’ve had a weekend where we’ve had such a change in the weather for a long time. In Magny-Cours obviously it was just wet all weekend. Hopefully it’s a bit more stable next weekend, it’s dry and the race is close and we can have some good racing.”

The Lowes boys, Sam in Moto2 and Alex in WorldSBK at Estoril, will both be out on track in Italy next weekend, so what about little bro’s chances. “It’s Mugello - Sam goes fast in Mugello, but Sam can win in every track. He just needs to understand. He just needs to be a bit calmer. Last year and this year he’s riding great, so I expect he’ll be on the podium. I want to try and be on the podium as well, so hopefully both of us.”