Pata Yamaha’s Alex Lowes ended the first day of World Superbike practice at Buriram fourth on the combined timesheets but says he is still not totally comfortable on the new R1 and needs to find more front-end feel.
Lowes finished the day on a 1’35.224, 0.595s behind fastest man Michael Van Der Mark but did a long run to gauge the tyre drop instead of going for time attack laps. With a fresh tyre at the end of the session, Lowes put in two low 1’35s efforts.
“We are still a little way off the potential of the bike and I’m still not totally comfortable. I need to find a little more front-end field but I think we’re capable of a couple of good results here, which will set us up nicely for Aragon,” said Lowes.
"The grip on the track was really low this morning, and it feels a lot different from last year, so today was really about learning a new circuit with the new bike. We've completed plenty of laps without really needing to change the YZF-R1 that much, so after the two sessions it feels pretty good.”