Voltcom Suzuki’s Alex Lowes had a rather painful start to his rookie World Superbike campaign. The Derby based lad was battling with a dislocated ankle injury that he sustained in Saturday’s free practice.

He looked to be finding a strong rhythm in his debut race in Phillip Island, before a crash at Doohan saw his efforts halted prematurely. Regrouping for race two, the Englishman’s team worked tirelessly to rebuild the Suzuki GSX-R1000. Despite running on at turn four in the opening lap, Lowes’ determination saw him charging through the field and into the top ten, from 21st, in just five laps.

Scoring his fastest lap of the race on his second revolution, Lowes held the fastest time for a further ten laps. But the ankle injury ultimately compromised his race, causing a further mistake at turn four. Lowes finished his debut weekend with three points and a top thirteen finish to show for his brave efforts.

“I’m frustrated with today. I tried really hard and don’t have a lot to show for it really. The first race crash, and in the second race the run on, on the first lap and then the crash later was all because I was struggling to change gear with my foot,” said Lowes.

“I had a numbing injection, lost a bit of feeling and I couldn’t change gear so it was hard work! I was riding through the pain, so to just get three points has upset me a bit because we had such good pace all through the test.

“I’ve never been here before and we were still looking like we could run at the front and challenge for a podium so I’m really disappointed, but I’m going to come back fitter and stronger and we should be ok for Aragon.”