Determined Lowes Crashes Out Of German Grand Prix
Today’s German Grand Prix at the Sachsenring saw the first retirement of the season for Sam Lowes and the Team Federal Oil Gresini Moto2: to stop the good streak of results of the 25-year-old British rider contributed treacherous conditions, with pouring rain which made the asphalt very slippery.
Started from the fourth row, Lowes rode a very determined race, as always: sixth placed after a few laps, Sam then crashed on the ninth lap. This has not prevented him from rejoining the race and to recover from 21st position close to the points scoring positions, until a second crash with 3 laps to go, caused by the difficulties under braking due to the brake lever which was damaged in the first crash, finally forced him to retire.
Despite the setback, Lowes remains in third place in the overall standings, 30 points behind Championship leader Johann Zarco, winner today, and 5 behind Alex Rins, who also crashed today.
SAM LOWES (DNF)
“I’m sorry because I would have liked to cross the finish line to continue the positive run of results in the points, even if probably we would have collected only a 12th place. Unfortunately the bike was already quite damaged after the first crash: in particular I was struggling to use the brake lever and in fact I missed it under braking with 3 laps to go. I had to try a second time and at that point I had to brake aggressively to slow down and I slipped. In the first part of the race things were going well: after the Warm Up we knew that we didn’t have the pace to try to fight for victory, so at one point I even slowed down a bit, but I crashed. It’s been a difficult weekend, though honestly in the dry we could count on a good pace to fight with at the top. Zarco was very good and he’s strong in all conditions: the next three races will be very important for the championship”.
FAUSTO GRESINI
“It was not an easy weekend and unfortunately we had to record our first DNF in a very important Grand Prix for the Championship battle. Now we have to stay focused to try to get the most in the upcoming races: now the gap from Zarco is high, but of course we will give our maximum to try to recover”.
