Pata Yamaha’s Alex Lowes cut short his track time on the second day of World Superbike testing at Jerez but not before he found a setup which not only gave him more front-end feel with the new R1 but also improved corner-exit punch.

The Derby-based rider is still suffering with the arm he injured at Jerez last November so stopped his programme an hour early due to tiredness but said it was better to do that than make a silly mistake.

“It was a good. I got a lot of laps in today, 58 which was eight more than I had set a target for, especially as my arm still isn’t as good as I want it. We had some stuff to try at the end and some new tyres but I was tired and instead of taking a rosk on something silly happening, I decided to call it a day,” said Lowes, speaking to bikesportnews.com at the track.

“It was a good day, we learned a lot of stuff and now we can move on to the next one. I aim to be in much better shape for the Phillip Island test. We have tried a lot of things with the bike over the two days in terms of getting more front feeling, and rear feeling, plus a better understanding of how to get the most out of the iengine. I rthink I have been riding good even with the injury.

“We made some good steps with corner exit grip and accleration compared to the feeling I had before at Portimao, so we made some steps there with a better shock setting. We could do with a little more top end but it has a lot of punch and is very rideable.”