Britain’s Sam Lowes missed a Moto2 podium by three-tenths of a second at Mugello’s MotoGP round this afternoon after a turn-one tangle with Simone Corsi dropped him from third to 11th place.
Lowes had made a good start and was sitting behind Dominic Aegerter and Thomas Luthi, who subsequently crashed. Corsi tried a move around the outside of Lowes into Puccini on lap two, closed his line at the apex, leaving Lowes nowhere to go but into him.
“That incident at the start definitely cost me a podium because I finished only 0.3s off the podium and I lost a lot more than 0.3s. I won’t say it cost me the win as they had more pace,” said Lowes, speaking at the track.
Although the race pace was slower than had been achieved in distance runs in free practice, Lowes couldn’t find the grip to catch leader Tito Rabat and Johann Zarco, and doesn’t know why.
“I really struggled and the pace was so much slower than practice. I sound a bit like a broken record but I struggled for grip. It is something that I am doing, I can’t blame anyone else.
“Track temperature was 45°C and I had some big slides. If I had been with Rabat and Zarco I could have stayed there but I pushed hard for the podium at the end. We are finishing races, I am using my head, Corsi was a bit stupid at the start. He tipped in one me. It was 50/50 but had he given way, he wouldn’t have crashed. End of…”
