Kawasaki’s Alex Lowes was back to his best at Portugal’s Algarve International Circuit after two days of WorldSBK testing.
Running fourth in the combined times at the close of Wednesday, his best 1’40.335 lap was half a second behind teammate Jonathan Rea. The Brit also racked up 160 laps around the 4.6km layout across Tuesday and Wednesday, proving he was firmly back to full fitness after a turbulent injury-struck season.
The 31-year-old now has a wait on his hands before returning to action with his 2022 Ninja ZX-10RR, with the next test scheduled for March 25th at Catalunya’s Montmeló Circuit.
“We have had a really good test here and I think I did 162 laps over the two days,” Lowes explained from Portugal. “That is the best thing for me because I have not done a full day’s testing for over a year because of the all the injuries I have had. So to do 160-odd laps at a good pace, no mistakes, and while working hard on the bike; I am really happy. That is one box ticked off.
“In terms of settings on the bike we made some improvements but it looks like the other guys have also made some. I am really happy with the work we have done but we still need to find a couple of tenths or so before the start of the season.
“This is the best I have felt on the bike in a long, long time. I am really happy and we are going to work hard with my crew chief Marcel during this little break before we have our Montmeló test at the end of March.”
“We had a very good test and clearly Alex made an impressive recovery from his 2021 injuries over the winter,” Lowes’ Crew Chief, Marcel Duinker confirmed. “He did not feel any type of fatigue. He is at full strength, so it is impressive how well he recovered in the last two-and-a-half months. A lot of respect for that.
"Alex was able to increase his speed lap-by-lap over these two days. We did not make any change to the bike set-up, we just tested our updated material. This Portimao test was the point for us to have a clear idea about our bike specification for the coming season. From today we can say that we know what we will race for about 99% of the bike. This was our target and we reached our target.
“Alex was fast, ridiculously consistent when he did his long runs, and I am happy he could match his race speed to the competition. On race tyres and over distance he can match their speed. We are very confident and we have two more tests in front of us before the start of the season. Now, we can start to look at the smaller details because all the big items are done.”
