Voltcom Suzuki’s Alex Lowes battled his way to fourth place in the wet second World Superbike race at Portimao this afternoon despite having to dial out most of his traction control in the early laps.

The reigning MCE British Superbike Champion felt that new software parameters were holding him back in the soaking conditions and he rode through the field from 15th at the first corner to be in spitting distance of the podium.

“It’s pleasing because we came through from 11th place in race one but in race two it was worse because I just span off the start. It was horrendous because I was trying to be too aggressive and I was about 15th by the time we got to turn one,” said Lowes, speaking to bikesportnews.com at Portimao.

“I stayed calm and worked hard, even though I was much further back than I wanted to be. It was the first time we had ridden in the wet with some new electronics software so it wasn’t as easy as just switching to Assen settings.

“It was holding me back so much I was struggling to get anywhere, so I was adjusting it via the buttons but the adjustment is very wide at the moment and you can’t be very specific so I just made it less and less and less, going down as much as I could.

“It was still holding me back when I was lifting the bike up so we didn’t have the balance right but after six laps I thought, ‘That’s as much as I can do’ so just concentrated on riding like that.

“I feel like I am riding really well, I’ve never raced here before and I think I am doing myself proud. I think I am using my head more than people can see and getting a result out it, so I think it’s positive. When the bike is ready to get the results, I feel I am riding well enough.”