Alex Lowes takes first WorldSBK podium of 2021 with second at Aragon

Alex Lowes took his first podium of the 2021 WorldSBK season by finishing runner-up to Jonathan Rea in the first of three races this weekend.
Toprak Razgatlioglu and Alex Lowes, Aragon WorldSBK race1, 2021
Toprak Razgatlioglu and Alex Lowes, Aragon WorldSBK race1, 2021
© Gold and Goose

Alex Lowes clinches first podium of the 2021 WorldS🎃BK campaign after an i💖ntense battle with Toprak Razgatlioglu. 

Lowes made a great start from the front of the second row to slot in ✨just behind team-mate Jonathan Rea.

The two Kawasaki riders instantly started to gap the group behind and looked on course for a comfortable one-꧂two. 

However, Lowes encountered some issues at the halfway stage of the race and🙈 fell into the gr🌺asp of Razgatlioglu and Chaz Davies.

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Once t🐽he Yamaha rider got ahe🧔ad, Lowes was able to stabilise himself and then mount a challenge late on. 

A charge that saw him ꩲpip Razgatlioglu over the start finish line. Lowes said: "Before the race I didn’t know what to expect. We’ve obviously tested a lot here but the conditions have changed. So you don’t really know and there’s🧔 always that excitement of the first race. 

"I felt quite good at the start, I got a good start, stayed with Jonathan [Rea], but after a few laps I encountered some big problems on th🦋e front. I had two or three big slides. 

"I just thought to myself ‘it’s the first 🎃race of the year’, and I saw I had a bit of a gap. I knew they were gonna catch me because I decided just to be smooth in the middle (of the race),𒊎 and I was thinking when somebody passes me ‘just try to stay with them’ and use them to fight until the end of the race."

On🍃 various occasions Lowes used the better rear grip of his Kawasaki to challenge Razgattlioglu, but the 24 year-old’s immense braking was making i👍t extremely difficult. 

"Then when I saw it was Toprak [Razgatlioglu], I thought ‘oh great!’, because I know what he’s lik🐟e on the brakes, but we had a really g😼ood battle,” added the former BSB champion. 

"Some parts he was faster and some parts I was faster. I could see in the last three laps he was spinning a lot so I didn't want t🎐o pass him before the last corner, as he was turning better and was going to switch me. 

"I decided ജto wait on the outside, be a little bit patient and then get a bit of a run onto the straight."

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