Lowes: “Jonathan and I are on the limit every time we ride this bike”

Despite being closer to his teammate in terms of performance so far this season, Lowes is only ninth in the WorldSBK standings as inconsistent race results have taken place over the opening four rounds.

When he’s qualified well, and finished the race, Lowes has been inside the top five more often than not, however, the problems Kawasaki are facing which are predominantly to do with tyre wear, have made challenging for anything other than a podium very difficult.

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Even podiums have been very challenging to achieve for both Lowes and Rea, as the former has suffered his second worst return through the opening four rounds since 2019, while Rea has made his worst start to a WorldSBK season since joining Kawasaki in 2015.

So when speaking to WorldSBK.com post-race last Sunday, it’s no surprise that Lowes wanted a bit more help from the Japanese manufacturer.

"We still need to improve if we want to challenge for the podium," added Lowes. "I think me and Jonathan are pushing on the limit every time we ride the bike. 

"I think in some conditions our bike is fantastic, clearly. But in some conditions we struggled quite a lot. 

"We just need to make the [working] window a little bit wider so that we can challenge a bit more regularly for the podium, certainly for me." 

Lowes finished fourth in Race 2 at Catalunya, which matched his result from the Superpole Race in Assen.

And while the former Yamaha rider was unable to challenge Razgatlioglu at the end of the race, the Brit showed just what he’s capable of during the opening few laps.

Lowes made moves on both Razgatlioglu and Michael Ruben Rinaldi, before trying to close down - which he did with some success for one lap - on eventual race winner Alvaro Bautista.

Talking about his race, Lowes said: "To pass Toprak, Rinaldi and be up behind Bautista - I sort of watched him for a lap and realised that he’s not in my race. 

"He was incredibly smooth with how he was riding and he didn’t need to force the bike at all. 

"Respect to him for how he managed the races. It’s not easy to ride out at the front like that and be as consistent at that. I knew that was not my race. 

"I tried to just be consistent, and there was a little bit of a battle, but when you know that the tyres are going to drop, then you know that however much effort you put in at the start is going to come back and bite you in the butt at the end."