Voltcom Suzuki’s Alex Lowes is happy enough with his two races at this weekend’s Imola World Superbike round, saying he is pleased at having two solid finishes but adding that a lot of work needs to be done on corner entry strategy.

The reigning British Superbike Champion, and team-mate Eugene Laverty, struggled all weekend with engine braking into all of the Italian track’s slow corners, of which there are six, which meant neither were in a position to challenge for a podium.

In the second race we made the bike a bit better, got some more edge grip, I tried to pass Eugene down the hill into Rivazza and ran off and lost some time which ruined my race but after that I was doing some decent times and could have got seventh,” said Lowes, speaking to bikesportnews.com at the track.

“It’s a positive for me because I am finally fit and put together two good races doing good times right until the end. We can’t be happy with the position or how far away we are from the winner but Eugene finished second in the world last year and he is doing the same as me.

“It’s all very well saying we are quicker than the bike was doing last year by a chunk because everyone else is going quicker too so we are behind a little bit but I’d be more worried if Eugene was winning and I was tenth.

“At the minute there are some fundamental issues with the electronics on corner entry but it is the same for us both. There is no point in getting down on myself as no-one would have won the race on that bike today. I’ve had a steady weekend, had two decent stars and went forwards in the races.”