On a track surface that has been re-laid in many key areas, Pata Yamaha rider Alex Lowes put in a class leading performance on day one of the Jerez WorldSBK test.

He explained how it was done on asphalt that was hardly scrubbed in, and also featured one bumpy section where there had been no bumps before.

“There are some bumps at turn eight, but to be honest it has not been that much of a bumpy track and it is not breaking up, so that is good,” he said, pleased with his first day’s work.

“I have a couple of enhancements to the chassis setup in the direction that we chose in November. I also tried a couple of things today that were quite interesting, some obviously worse and a bit out of the window we like to work in, then it came back and it felt quite good. We need to keep working on it tomorrow.”

Lowes has been working on himself and his bike in order to continue to make career progress.

“To be honest when it is a bit cold and there is a lot of grip in the track it is quite good for the Yamaha. It works really well but my style has definitely improved a lot towards my target of how I want to ride the bike.

“That is something that I need to keep doing and the bike set-up is in that direction as well. It is helping me with my style. We always do a lot of laps in Jerez, but to be honest I think that is an advantage really and you need a couple of laps to work out if something better or worse.

“Portimao is a completely different track though this one so it would be ideal if what we find out tomorrow goes to Portugal and it all works, but knowing motorbikes it is not always like that.”