Lowes fastest on final day as Pons tops overall times at Jerez

Britain’s Sam Lowes has topped the final day of the first Moto2 official test of the winter at Jerez, but was unable to touch Axel Pons’ impressive lap time from the middle day of the three-day test.

Lowes ended the three days 0.3 behind Pons, who admitted afterwards that he had relaxed on the final day after crashing after his lap time on Thursday.

“On the last day we decided to rest due to yesterday’s crashes. I knew I could be fast and I asked Alfred on Thursday to let me try it, but I didn’t expect to be so quick. I braked where I had to and I pushed at the right points. I’m very happy and proud of the team’s work, they’re doing great.

“We work very well with Alfred, we’re consistent on track and the bike makes me more confident than ever. I think we’re very ready to start the season. I also want to thank the people that help me out of track, such as my nutritionist. Let’s see how it goes in Qatar”.

Lowes was upbeat about second place, though, hoping that the team have now got a strong base they can build on next week in the second test, which gets underway on Friday in Qatar.

“It’s been a fantastic day, we worked really hard in the first two days and today we managed to keep the same direction. This morning I did a long run with 15 laps all in 1’42”, the last one in 1’42”2, which is incredible. In the afternoon we tried some new parts from Kalex, then in the final stages we pushed a little bit for the lap time, but not at the maximum, still doing a good job.

“I’m really happy because we ended the test in second position, but I was the fastest today. For sure we have the best pace and we can fight to win, this is the target. A massive thank you to the team, I can’t wait for Qatar!”

His fellow Brit Danny Kent ended the test in twelfth as he continues to come to grips with the Moto2 after stepping up from Moto3 as world champion, while reigning Moto2 champion Johann Zarco had a low profile test to finish 14^th.