Pata Yamaha’s Alex Lowes bagged his best World Superbike Friday result of the season so far in the second free practice session at Sepang, finding two seconds over the lunch break to take fourth place on a track he says feels a little strange.
The Sepang circuit has been re-surfaced since the February MotoGP tests and some of the corners re-profiled to give them camber. Lowes has taken full advantage of his raw pace, putting in a 2'04.262 to end ten seconds quicker than his slowest lap of the day.
"Our best Friday position so far this season here at Sepang, as our raw pace and direction was better than it has been for the last few Fridays. We have also highlighted some areas today that definitely need to be improved for race distance, and I need to have more confidence on corner entry, but we have a clear plan now so let's get our heads down and see if we can improve for tomorrow,” said the Derby rider.
“The new surface gave a really strange feeling at the start as it's unusual to progress by over 10 seconds during the day on a dry track! The damp patches and general grip has improved but let's see what happens tomorrow now it's rained so heavily."
