Despite crashing and dislocating his ankle just two hours before World Superbike Superpole at Phillip Island, Voltcom Suzuki’s Alex Lowes still managed to contend with Pirelli qualifiers for the first time and grab a second-row start for his race debut tomorrow.
The reigining MCE British Superbike Champion lobbed it at turn 11 halfway through the third free practice session, in which he remained fastest, and then rode again in the fourth session before heading into qualifying with a sizeable limp. There are also unconfirmed reports of a broken bone in the Derby rider's foot.
“I’m frustrated more than anything. I think we’ve made some really good steps with the Suzuki GSX-R. Dale, Russell, Ash and Lez have worked really, really hard with the bike and Tim, Davide and the whole team have worked to give me the bike that I’ve wanted. We’ve improved every time that I’ve gone out, obviously I’ve made a mistake this morning - a small mistake but with big consequences - and they’ve had to work really hard to get me back out, so fair play to them,” said Lowes.
“I felt I did as good as I could do in the qualifying, my foot was holding me back a bit and I really need to work on that tomorrow because the bike is better than me at the moment and it’s frustrating because I think we can do so much better. It’s nice to be injured and still be fifth, I think people would have taken that if I was fit! I’m happy, I’ve been fast every session and I believe that I can go well and it’s now a case of trying to get my ankle to the best that it can be and have two good races.”
