Alex Lowes had not won a World Superbike race in two years, but the 33-year-old won two races back to back to start his 2024 season.

Alex Lowes claimed victory for the first time as he stood on top of the podium after the Superpole Race and after the final race of the weekend.

The British rider has become the lead rider for the Kawasaki Racing Team after Jonathan Rea departed and has already shown he is capable of leading the Japanese manufacturer.

After the Superpole Race Lowes explained his emotions: “Honestly, it’s been a long time since that last win, and I’ve been working. I was dead emotional; I was crying on the in lap. The guys have done a fantastic job all weekend. I’m really, really, really happy.”

Lowes then went on to talk about what was a hectic Race Two, which he claimed his second win of the season in: “It was an unbelievable day! The second race was chaos from the start. It was a little bit delayed, and in the first part of the race Toprak’s bike blew up. I was nearly off track, I did well to stay on. Then, Jonathan had a big crash, so I hope he’s okay.

“I was dropping back a little bit, but just before the red flag, I had a couple of good sectors to get back on my brother. I had some good speed, and the temperature was down a little bit. My focus in the restart was to make a good start, put myself in the first three or four positions. I knew Toprak wasn’t there, and when he is, you have to ride a little bit more defensively because he’s always going to have a pass. Once I got settled into the race, I was struggling to stay with Bautista a little bit and Michael.

“Locatelli passed me at Turn 4. He was going to hit the back of Bautista, so he went wide and then I managed to stay on the line, stay close to Alvaro because, in my head, I was thinking he was struggling to enter the corner because the grip was going. I knew I could be really fast through Turn 8 and into Turn 9. This was my chance to pass him and try to stop the bike into Turn 10 and 11. I had a little plan, and it went quite well. In the end, I had a lot more grip than Alvaro which allowed me to make this pass.”