News

Tuesday 28 July 2020

Sam Lowes and Augusto Fernandez both repeat last weekend’s results in the third Moto2 race of 2020, with the Englishman picking up excellent points for his world championship challenge and the rider from the Balearic Islands mounting another impressive comeback.

The Circuit of Jerez-Angel Nieto was the scene of the first ever Andalusian Grand Prix and gave the Team Estrella Galicia 0,0 Marc VDS riders a chance to improve on their times and performances from the Spanish Grand Prix at this track one week ago.

Track conditions were even more demanding on this occasion, with ambient temperatures of 34 degrees and track temperatures of 53 degrees greeting riders for the 23-lap Moto2 race.

It was a tough start for Sam, who dropped from second on the grid to sixth place at turn one. But the former World Supersport World Champion was soon up to speed, passing both Aron Canet and Jorge Navarro on the first lap to sit fourth.

After suffering in the first five laps of last weekend’s race, Sam showed much better speed here, staying within two seconds of the leading trio. However a number of front-end slides affected his pace in the middle of the race.

Lowes did fight until the end and reduced the gap to Marco Bezzecchi in third place from 1.5 seconds on lap 19 to half a second at the chequered flag. Fourth place takes him to seventh in the championship, 24 points behind first.

“It’s been a positive two races”

“Of course I’m happy with result in the end. In the last laps I was stronger. And I improved the first laps from last week. The start was poor but I improved the first laps and overtook a few riders. In the middle of the race I was not strong and lost a little bit with the front tyre. I was struggling a lot and didn’t feel good. I just tried to stay smooth and in the end I was catching third place back up. It’s been a positive two races. We need to obviously keep working but it’s a good finish, good points and I’m already looking forward to Brno.”

Team manager, Joan Olivé had this to say – “Sam was very clever in the way he achieved another fourth place”

“It has been a very good weekend for the team, especially with Sam. He’s shown really good pace again through another weekend. He’s really strong and could do another solid result. Today in the race unfortunately we were stronger in the first three sectors than the rest but in the fourth sector he was losing a little bit. We could not make the podium but he was very clever in the way he achieved another fourth place. This will give him a lot confidence for the next GPs after these two solid weekends”

Share this...

Facebook

Pinterest

Twitter

Linkedin