Castrol Honda’s World Superbike debutant, Alex Lowes, finished in the points in his first race with the team in today’s eighth round event at Brno in the Czech Republic.
The races were won by Marco Melandri and Max Biaggi, with each rider finishing second in the race he didn’t win, and series leader Carlos Checa taking two thirds.
Lowes began this morning continuing the progress he has made in each session of the weekend and setting a personal best lap in warm-up. Starting from 21st place on the grid, the 20-year-old from Lincoln, continued in the same vein, setting his best time on lap two before finishing 15th for his first World Superbike championship point.
His Castrol Honda team-mate, Ruben Xaus, suffered a big crash on the opening lap of race one, sustaining a heavy impact to his left thigh. While no bones were broken in the crash, the Spaniard was unable to bend his leg sufficiently and was reluctantl y forced to sit out race two.
Lowes crashed out of the second outing, losing the front at Brno’s downhill turn seven, but still impressed the team over the weekend with his potential and the willingness he showed in adapting his riding style to suit his new machine and the higher demands of world championship racing.
Alex Lowes – 15th & DNFThe weekend was great but I’m just really disappointed with the crash in the second race. The front didn’t really feel good from the start, like there was a lack of grip, which was frustrating and that probably led to the crash. But before that, we’d made progress in every session and gone faster, even in the first race. I feel that I’ve worked really hard to change my style and the weekend went well until that rubbish end. Still, it’s been a mega experience and I’d really like the thank the people at Honda, Ronald and Gerrit ten Kate an d all the guys in the team for giving me this opportunity and for teaching me such a lot. I think it’s definitely made me a better rider. I’m going to have a chance to continue to change my braking style at a test with the team next week in Assen and I know I’ll learn even more then.
Ruben Xaus – DNF & DNSI don't think I did anything different in the crash, so I'm not sure why it happened but it almost felt like a double highside. First the rear let go and threw me out of the seat. It seem to correct and I thought I would save it but while I was out of the seat it went again and just threw me forward over the front. I got a really big bang from the tank on my leg and, although there was no break, it swelled up and I could not bend it enough to ride in race two. It's a disappointing end to the weekend where I cannot deny we have had some problems. It's frustrating because everyone in the team wants to fix t hem and is trying their best to do this. I won't know for a week or so how bad the leg is but I hope we can get back to some better results at Silverstone.
Ronald ten Kate – team-managerRuben had a nasty crash in race one but luckily he was able to walk away. There are no major injuries apart from the muscle on his left thigh, which is completely bruised so it’s hard for him to move around. We’re going to have to wait a few days to learn how long it will take for him to recover. Young Alex was still chipping away at his best qualifying time in warm-up this morning and in race one he produced another personal best lap. He’s actually done quite a good job for us, and himself, getting constantly faster while adapting to the new bike, a new team and the track, which he was not so familiar with. It’s a shame about his race two crash, because it denied him some more track time, which he could have used very well . But we’re going to give him some more of that at a test in Assen next week.
2011 World Superbike championship, round eightBrno, Czech Republic (5.403km), 20 laps - results, race one:1 Marco Melandri (ITA) Yamaha 40m23.699s2 Max Biaggi (ITA) Aprilia +0.241s3 Carlos Checa (ESP) Ducati +0.438s4 Michel Fabrizio (ITA) Suzuki + 8.448s5 Eugene Laverty (IRL) Yamaha +11.863s6 Aryton Badovini (ITA) BMW +16.374s15 Alex Lowes (GBR) Castrol Honda +31.998s
Race two (20 laps):1 Max Biaggi (ITA) Aprilia 40m21.646s2 Marco Melandri (ITA) Yamaha +0.222s3 Carlos Checa (ESP) Ducati +3.558s4 Michel Fabrizio (ITA) Suzuki +7.863s5 Eugene Laverty (IRL) Yamaha +8.534s6 Aryton Badovini (ITA) BMW +18.085s
Championship points after eight of 13 rounds:1 Checa 293, 2 Biaggi 263, 3 Melandri 240, 4 Laverty 168, 5 Leon Haslam (GBR) BMW 137, 6 Leon Camier (GBR) Aprilia 134, 10 Jonathan Rea (GBR ) Castrol Honda 94.
Next round: Silverstone, UK – 29-31 July
