Alex Lowes comfortably outperformed his three fellow official or semi-official Yamaha riders at the Aragon WorldSBK round, allowing for the fact that Michael van der Mark got taken out of the Superpole race early on.

But, like his Iwata stablemates, the former BSB champion encountered rear tyre wear in Spain which hadn't been a factor in Thailand.

“In the final race I just struggled for rear tyre in the last couple of laps, but I felt good for 10-15 laps, felt really strong, and then unfortunately I could not keep the fight to the end,” said Lowes about scaring even Jonathan Rea for a while in the final race of the day, before his grip package dropped off too far.

“The sprint race was quite good but, where the bike is strong in the corner speed and the longer corners you need the grip to sort of bring out the advantage of the bike.

So when we lose grip we lose quite a lot of performance. But I feel like I rode well and we know the areas we need to improve going forward.”

Lowes admitted that area was tyre life and it wasn't just his pace at the front that was making it hard for the Pirelli rubber.

“Obviously, tyre life, because Sandro was dropping a lot, me and Michael dropping a lot – Marco also. We need to keep the grip because it sounds like the other guys are managing to keep the tyre better for the end of the race - but I think it is the most competitive I have been on this track.

The bike is very similar to last year and we have improved a lot on the overall race performance, and we do not have a new bike like Ducati or Kawasaki.

"So just the small steps we have made I think we made a good job but we are still a bit far behind and hopefully Assen will suit us a bit more.”

Tyre wear has not been a particular problem up to now, says Lowes.

“Thailand no problem, Thailand was good,” said Lowes. “Australia, everybody struggles, it is more of a generic thing. It is the first normal track here and we had some problems.”

Concession parts are now allowed for Yamaha, and most other manufacturers, but just because they are allowed does not mean that any new parts should be brought in, only the ones that will guarantee an improvement. Does Lowes agree?

“The guys back at Yamaha Italy will only give us something when they know it is good. They are working really hard so if they want to try something I am happy to try. I believe in them. Everything else they have brought me is good, so I have faith in them. If they think it is better, for sure I am happy to try it.”

Lowes is third overall, on 100 points, with the next nearest rider behind him van der Mark, 21 points back.