Alex Lowes has declared that the Crescent Racing-run Yamaha R1 now feels like ‘his own bike’ following two tests with the Japanese machine in Spain.

To date, Lowes - who enters his third WorldSBK season next year – has tested the Yamaha at Jerez and Aragon and he will continue in Jerez next week.

“It feels like my bike now,” Lowes tells WorldSBK.com. “But we have a long way to go to be able to challenge Johnny (Rea) and the Kawasaki and Chaz (Davies, Ducati). They have so much development, it makes it difficult because you feel like you’re behind. We have a new bike to these regulations, but I think we can do a good job.”

At MotorLand last week, World Champion Jonathan Rea topped the unofficial timesheets with a 1’50.3 lap time, while Lowes was joint third quickest on a 1’51.1.

“I did quite a few laps in the 51s,” he adds. “It was good. I also did a longer run, more or less a race simulation, on the hard tyre and was quite fast; on the last laps I was in the 52s, so that’s not bad. Like I said, we have so much to improve but the potential is good.”

Alex Lowes was speaking with WorldSBK.com at this week’s EICMA motorcycle show in Milan, where several riders were present to meet and greet both fans and the media.