LOWES ON TOP FORM AHEAD OF QATAR SEASON OPENER
After being the absolute protagonist in the last two winter tests of the preseason and setting the quickest lap-time (1’58.439secs) in the three-day outing at Losail, Sam Lowes is finally ready to tackle the opening round of the 2019 Moto2 World Championship – which takes place in Qatar this weekend.
The standard bearer of Team Federal Oil Gresini Moto2 displayed an exciting amount of speed throughout the three days of practice while working on many areas of the Triumph-powered machine he is still trying to get to know better. After not having the best time on day one due to very windy conditions, the Briton was able to work hard in the remaining days and consistently stayed on top of the timesheets.
On the final day, Lowes also had the time to complete a race simulation, which is currently being analysed by the team ahead of the season debut, in order to come up with the perfect plan for the Qatari event. The Losail International Circuit is one of Lowes’s favourite venues, as the former World Champion was on pole in 2015 and then lined up on the front row in the following edition with the Federal Oil Gresini Moto2 team in 2016.
The preseason draws to a close on a very high note and now the team is excited to get things started, while knowing that from Friday onwards it will be game time; proceedings will get underway this Friday at 14:45 local Qatari time (GMT +3) with the first free practice session of the intermediate class.
SAM LOWES #22
“We come from a very positive test in which we worked very hard, so I must thank the whole team first and foremost. We also managed to complete a race simulation on the last day: we decided to do it during the day, when conditions are normally worse than at night time as we wanted to test the bike limits – and I believe we succeeded. Generally speaking, we had a great winter and we found a good base to work on at every GP, so I cannot be but happy and positive ahead of the first race of the year. The goal is to stay at the front and battle for the win.”
