Voltcom Suzuki’s Alex Lowes is feeling confident going into tomorrow’s World Superbike qualifying sessions, at his local track of Donington Park. The Derby-based rider is pleased with his pace from today’s free practice outings, and ended the day finishing fifth quickest overall.

A revised schedule at the Leicestershire circuit saw today holding all three of the timed-for-qualifying free practice sessions, and with rain expected from midway through the day, the morning's first free practice session was all important. Local rider Lowes was quick from the off, setting first and second position times repeatedly on his GSX-R.

A consistent second session saw Lowes reached the top four, despite a small off at Melbourne. With five minutes remaining, the British racer set the fastest time so far of 1’28.187 but in the dying seconds Ducati’s Davide Giugliano and Kawasaki’s Loris Baz denied his efforts to leave him third.

The day’s final timed session took place this evening, in a change to the normal European schedule. Drops of rain were recorded in several sectors early on but while the white flag was raised, the weather failed to fully interrupt proceedings until the final minutes. With only two riders managing to improve their times from the earlier outings, Lowes has secured his place in the top ten for Saturday’s Superpole shoot-out, and the Lincolnshire rider is feeling positive ahead of tomorrow’s track activities.

“Today felt good. The last session we made some good improvements to the Voltcom Crescent Suzuki, did a longer run on the harder tyre and then got a bit caught out with the rain so we didn’t get the chance to use the softer tyre for a better lap time,” said Lowes.

“Despite that it was really good, I’m happy with the improvements made to the bike and obviously I enjoy riding this track. I think we’ve got a pretty good pace, we’ve put a lot of laps in today, a lot of hard work, and hopefully it will pay off this weekend.”

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