Pata Yamaha’s Alex Lowes had to contend with a mapping error in the opening WorldSBK race at Imola which meant he had nothing like the acceleration he was expecting through the whole of the 19-lap clash.

Lowes had started from tenth on the grid but immediately found the lack of speed and he began to lose time on the leaders. He eventually managed to find his way past Eugene Laverty and held off Topratz but is expecting a different story tomorrow.

“I struggled after the start because we made an error with the mapping options. After the start, the map I would usually switch to wasn’t what I expected and I had very little accleration, so I was getting passed left, right and centre. And there wasn’t much I could do about it,” said Lowes, speaking to bikesportnews.com.

“Towards the end, I was able to make up some places as I kept pretty calm and made some moves but I was having to rely on the front end a lot in order to get past people like Eugene. The team put a good bike under me this weekend and we definitely had the pace to at least go with Michael, so hopefully we can make it right in race two.”