Voltcom Suzuki’s Alex Lowes ran no traction control on the first day of World Superbike free practice at Motorland Aragon as he got used to the new Magneti Marelli electronics his team have installed this weekend.
Team boss Paul Denning followed a factory plan to change to the Italian brand but the units have only become available for use in competition this weekend. Lowes still managed sixth place on the combined timesheet and a second slower than Jonathan Rea, himself on a new electronics package.
“We always knew it was going to be a difficult weekend with the brand-new electronics and we ran the whole day without the traction control but it’s been good. I’m very optimistic that if everything works we are going to be competitive again it’s just a case of when, whether it’s tomorrow, the next day or the next round we don’t know,” said Lowes.
“We have a lot of work to do and we’ve hardly done any laps today so we’re feeling very much on the back foot and it’s testing really for us but we’ll do what we can and keep moving forward to achieve the results.”
