LOWES: “QUALIFYING NOT A DISASTER, BUT WE NEED TO IMPROVE”
Sam Lowes finished no higher than 11thin today’s qualifying for the Spanish Grand Prix at Jerez de la Frontera, in what was a complicated day for Team Federal Oil Gresini Moto2. After showing promising steps forward in free practice 3 – he was third with a best time of 1’41-559secs – the Briton approached the afternoon’s session with high hopes – and cooler temperatures compared to yesterday’s FP2.
Lowes, however, was unable to capitalise in Q2 due to limited grip on the rear-end of his Kalex machine, with his 1’41.650secs lap-time being almost one tenth slower than the one logged in the morning.
The former World Suepersport champion was nevertheless only four tenths of a second shy of pole position, and tomorrow he will spearhead Gresini Racing’s attack from 12:00 local time (GMT+2).
11th– SAM LOWES #22
“I’m disappointed with qualifying because this morning we made a good step and I was fast both on new and used tyres. Track temperature was a little bit hotter this afternoon – but not as hot as yesterday – but we struggled a lot and that was quite surprising. Eleventh place is not the end of the world and it’s still possible to fight for a good race result, but we need to understand why we lost a little bit of grip. I’m still positive for the race because it’s a track I really like. Race pace is good also with used tyres, but we need a good feeling from the beginning otherwise late-race speed would be useless. We’ll see how it goes tomorrow.”
