For a rider with a still not completely fit shoulder, KRT’s Alex Lowes put in a bold fifth place in WorldSBK race one at the same track he had such a fast testing crash at two months ago.

Fast enough in Superpole but just not at the sharpest edge of the narrow margin, Lowes was on the third not the second row for the opening Navarra battle. 

“In Superpole I felt quite good, actually,” said Lowes. “My laps weren’t too bad. I did the race tyre and two Qs. The second qualifier I just made a mistake in the last sector, and it was so close. 

“Jonny and Scott did a good lap, but then between Tommy in third and me, it was only a couple of tenths, not even. I ended up seventh, but it was close. I wasn’t disappointed with my laps. I thought they were quite good, but the position was not ideal coming from the third row. 

“In the race, I had a good start. I was fourth and Toprak passed me. I was sitting behind them guys, but I wasn’t fast enough to stay with them. I was struggling with the front. I was a bit quicker than the guys behind, so it was a bit of a boring race but a long race because it was hot.

“I used it to try to be consistent and understand how I can improve a bit for tomorrow.” 

Lowes is still coy in some ways about his physical condition, but admitted it has been hard in the past few rounds as he slowly but steadily heals up. 

“The last few rounds have been tough for me,” said Lowes. “I don't want to complain really and make excuses, but they’ve been quite tough. 

"Today I felt a lot better on the bike. I was able to be consistent right through the race. If I can improve the feeling with the bike I think I can do a good step better tomorrow. The race itself, it was hot, bumpy. The track is tight. It’s easy to make a mistake. 

“I don't think it was the most interesting race because everybody was a little bit spread out, but it’s so tight and one-lined it’s hard for everybody to be together, unfortunately. But I like the track. I think it’s quite a good layout. Hopefully tomorrow’s races can be a bit closer and we can be in the fight, hopefully.”

Lowes rates his bike and his team, as you would expect in a factory effort, but as a package that did not get an extra 500rpm on top, as he and Rea had done all their winter testing with, Lowes knows his current reality.

“I know Jonny struggled a lot yesterday and then today he did a good race again,” said Lowes. 

“He went off the start, got to the front. Scott was fastest and he finished second. I really didn’t expect him to finish in front of the Yamahas. From the test here and looking on the track, I thought the Yamahas were going to be a step ahead this weekend, but it didn’t work out like that. Maybe the track temperature changed a little bit? 

"Our bike does everything quite well, but we haven’t made a good step in any area. When I was on other bikes, the Kawasaki was always one of the faster bikes, but in the last few years with the new Ducati and the BMW and the Honda now, lots of the bikes have improved their top speed performance. The Yamaha is similar to the Kawasaki. 

“I think this year now that we are racing softer tyres than we’ve ever raced – even last year sometimes we used the ‘X’ but not really. In general, we’re racing with SCX tyres, which is a lot softer than we’ve ever raced in Superbike. They’re not really dropping. The lap times are still quite consistent. 

“For bikes that turn well, which is not the Kawasaki’s strong point, if you give more grip especially on the edge, you have more performance. In the past the downside was after 10, 12 laps, you can’t ride like that because you need to lift the bike up and use the tyre, otherwise the lap times drop. It doesn’t happen anymore. You can ride, like in Most, flowing ‘Supersport style’, let’s say. The tyres are allowing us to do that and they’re not dropping. So, it’s still an effective way to ride a superbike. Not historically. Tom Sykes stopping and firing out the corner, being on the edge as little as possible – this is gone. 

“The Kawasaki is more strong on the brakes, stable in acceleration, and we struggle a bit compared to others in turning. So when you give them the grip, it’s hard for us to find a solution around it. This is a little bit what we find with it at the minute. Trying to extract more from our bike. I think nobody is using the SC0. Even three or four years ago, SC0 was the soft tyre and it was even SC1 and SC0.

“The tyres are getting more stable and softer. I think this has helped and we need to find a way to extract more from our bike.” 

In Saturday’s race, the front tyre was the main issue for Lowes.

“I struggled a lot with the front,” said Lowes, before talking about Rea again. “He manages better than me, but we have similar problems. He has a lot more experience, especially in the heat on this bike and he can manage quite well. We were sort of at the limit on the front - stopping the bike and entering the corner. 

"Today after maybe six or seven laps I started closing a lot, so then I was just trying to ride a bit defensive and managing. I still think it was the correct tyre choice. I just needed to adjust, a bit, the setup of the bike.”