Lowes blasts "unprofessional" Aprilia management after split

Lowes's manager Roger Burnett confirmed earlier that Aprilia had on Thursday exercised its option to terminate the rider's two-year contract early, leaving the MotoGP rookie a free agent for 2018.

A former Moto2 frontrunner, Lowes had endured a difficult first campaign in the premier class so far, but says he had gone into the break thinking the situation was “quite okay”.

But after team manager Romano Albesiano claimed that the races at Brno and Red Bull Ring would be key to Lowes' future at Aprilia, the contract wound up terminated before the latter event.

Said Lowes: “Honestly, the communication between him [Albesiano] and me, myself and management is so lacklustre and not professional, and it's very difficult. Difficult to work with, difficult to know what page you're on.

"I wish them the best - I think the project has great potential, I think the bike has great potential to do well in MotoGP, but, yeah, there's no love lost [between us].

“There's going to be no issues obviously at all, but I don't owe them anything, because the opportunity they said they gave me wasn't there anyway.”

Lowes admitted that he took issue with the fact Aprilia was openly looking for replacements while he was still under contract.

The Italian team is understood to have approached Alvaro Bautista, Danilo Petrucci and Andrea Iannone for 2018 – and is now expected to field Scott Redding alongside Aleix Espargaro for 2018.

"You know, obviously, they asked, I think, every rider in the world anyway to come here and no one did for a long time," said Lowes.

“It's like, if you've got a girlfriend, asking all your mates to go out with her, it's probably not a great situation, is it?”

Not given “a fair crack of the whip”

Ten races into the 2017 campaign, Lowes has just two points to Espargaro's 40 – but the Spaniard is known to have been heavily prioritised in terms of bike upgrades and development.

Lowes said: “I don't feel like I've had a fair crack of the whip, I don't feel like I've been in the same situation.

“You're better off asking them why [the situation is as it is], I don't know why, it's like they didn't believe [in me] even before I arrived.”

The Briton says the explanation Aprilia has given to him regarding the termination was that it wanted a “less risky” rider.

He added: “I'm motivated to prove them all wrong, and if I do get results end of this year, there'll be some people in the team I will thank and some people I won't thank, and that's alright.

“In life, away from the track and at the track, you try to be respected - and I try to respect people.

“And some people in there aren't respectful towards me. And that's difficult, because - okay, the last results have not been perfect but I've not done anything to disrespect their brand or the situation.

“So, yeah, it's been frustrating, it's been disappointing, there's some people in there that I won't be friends with but that's not the end of the world.

“Now the ball's in my court, to go out there, prove that they're making a mistake and try and secure my future in MotoGP - and that's what I'll try to do.”

Additional reporting by David Gruz