The only defender of Aprilia's colors following the withdrawal of his teammate Aleix Espargaro, Sam Lowes has not had an easy time since the start of the weekend at Sepang. Brilliant on a wet track, he was less comfortable on dry asphalt and qualified in eighteenth position.
The Briton had a good performance during the second free practice session, climbing into the top 10 in the wet. With the tenth time, he was 1.9 behind the best time ofAndrea Dovizioso. He ranked in this FP2 between the two official Suzukis and the Yamaha Tech 3 of Johann zarco.
In the combined ranking of the three free practice sessions, he occupied twentieth position, ahead of Scott Redding and Michael van der Mark. He was hoping for a wet track for qualifying, but it wasn't to be.
In the dry, he ranked eighth in Q1, which will mean he starts this Sunday from the sixth row of the starting grid, alongside Bradley Smith and Loris Baz. He will be ahead of Tito Rabat, Hector Barbera and Karel Abraham on the seventh row, without forgetting Michael van der Mark on the last.
This eighteenth time equaled his second best result obtained this year in qualifying, Sam having previously achieved the eighteenth time in Motegi. This Sunday he will try to improve on his best race result which was thirteenth place at the recent Japanese Grand Prix.
According to Sam Lowes, who are " We worked a lot again today on the RS-GP, especially in terms of balance, because this morning I didn't have a good feeling.
“We managed to get our rhythm to a good level. My performance on very worn tires is about half a second off my best time and I think in the dry we can use the soft.
“In qualifying, I made a few small mistakes. I didn't achieve a perfect lap which would have placed me better on the grid.
“In any case, we have prepared well for the race, so whether it is dry or wet, we have the potential to fight for points. »
Qualification results:
1 Dani PEDROSA SPA Repsol Honda Team Honda 1'59.212
2 Johann ZARCO FRA Monster Yamaha Tech 3 Yamaha 1'59.229 0.017
3 Andrea DOVIZIOSO ITA Ducati Team Ducati 1'59.236 0.024
4 46 Valentino ROSSI ITA Movistar Yamaha MotoGP Yamaha 1'59.498 0.286
5 Maverick VIÑALES SPA Movistar Yamaha MotoGP Yamaha 1'59.538 0.326
6 Jorge LORENZO SPA Ducati Team Ducati 1'59.622 0.410
7 Marc MARQUEZ SPA Repsol Honda Team Honda 1'59.694 0.482
8 Alex RINS SPA Team SUZUKI ECSTAR Suzuki 1'59.992 0.780
9 Andrea IANNONE ITA Team SUZUKI ECSTAR Suzuki 2'00.119 0.907
10 Cal CRUTCHLOW GBR LCR Honda Honda 2'00.181 0.969
11 Jack MILLER AUS EG 0,0 Marc VDS Honda 2'00.326 1.114
12 Pol ESPARGARO SPA Red Bull KTM Factory Racing KTM 2'00.770 1.558
13 Danilo PETRUCCI ITA OCTO Pramac Racing Ducati
14 Scott REDDING GBR OCTO Pramac Racing Ducati
15 Alvaro BAUTISTA SPA Pull&Bear Aspar Team Ducati
16 Bradley SMITH GBR Red Bull KTM Factory Racing KTM
17 Loris BAZ FRA Reale Avintia Racing Ducati
18 Sam LOWES GBR Aprilia Racing Team Gresini Aprilia
19 Tito RABAT SPA EG 0,0 Marc VDS Honda
20 Hector BARBERA SPA Reale Avintia Racing Ducati
21 Karel ABRAHAM CZE Pull&Bear Aspar Team Ducati
22 Michael VAN DER MARK NED Monster Yamaha Tech 3 Yamaha
Provisional ranking of the World Championship:
1 MARQUEZ Marc SPA 269 points
2 DOVIZIOSO Andrea ITA 236
3 VIÑALES Maverick SPA 219
4 ROSSI Valentino ITA 188
5 PEDROSA Dani SPA 174
6 ZARCO Johann FRA 138
7 LORENZO Jorge SPA 117
8 PETRUCCI Danilo ITA 111
9 CRUTCHLOW Cal GBR 103
10 FOLGER Jonas GER 84
11 BAUTISTA Alvaro SPA 70
12 MILLER Jack AUS 65
13 ESPARGARO Aleix SPA 62
14 REDDING Scott GBR 61
15 IANNONE Andrea ITA 60
16 ESPARGARO Pol SPA 49
17 RINS Alex SPA 46
18 BAZ Loris FRA 45
19 ABRAHAM Karel CZE 30
20 RABAT Tito SPA 29
21 BARBERA Hector SPA 25
22 SMITH Bradley GBR 20
23 PIRRO Michele ITA 18
24 KALLIO Mika END 11
25 LOWES Sam GBR 5
26 NAKASUGA Katsuyuki JPN 4
27 GUINTOLI Sylvain FRA 1
28 TSUDA Takuya JPN 0
Classification by manufacturers:
1 HONDA 319 points
2 YAMAHA 285
3 DUCATI 278
4 SUZUKI 87
5 APRILIA 64
6 KTM 58
Team ranking:
1 REPSOL HONDA TEAM 443 points
2 MOVISTAR YAMAHA MOTOGP 407
3 DUCATI TEAM 353
4 MONSTER YAMAHA TECH 3 222
5 OCTO PRAMAC RACING 172
6 TEAM SUZUKI ECSTAR 107
7 LCR HONDA 103
8 PULL&BEAR ASPAR TEAM 100
9 EG 0,0 MARC VDS 94
10 REALE AVINTIA RACING 70
11 RED BULL KTM FACTORY RACING 69
12 APRILIA RACING TEAM GRESINI 67
Photo © Aprilia Racing Team Gresini
