The opening day of WorldSBK action in the Czech Republic ended with Elf Marc VDS Racing Team rider Sam Lowes satisfied with excellent progress made on his competitive debut at the Most track.

• This morning’s FP1 was the first opportunity for the Briton to experience the 4.2km Most layout on WorldSBK machinery and in hot and sunny conditions he spent the session experimenting with lines and braking markers.
•  With experience and confidence growing lap-by-lap, Lowes was able to make big strides forward in this afternoon’s FP2, with the 33-year-old improving by the massive margin of 1.2s in scorching hot conditions.
• A personal best time of 1.32.448 put Lowes within touching distance of the top 10 going into Superpole at 11am local time tomorrow before Race 1, which is scheduled for lights out at 2pm.

/// SAM LOWES: 12^th, 36 laps, 1’32.448

“The team did a good job to get me up to speed quickly”

“Today has been positive because it is never easy coming to a new track for the first time, but I feel the team have done a good job to help me get up to speed quickly. This morning, I just decided to ride steady and make sure I didn’t make mistakes so that I could really focus on learning the track. But this afternoon I felt some of the changes we made really helped me get down to some decent times and overall we have to be happy. We’ve taken a slightly different direction with the set-up of the bike this weekend and I’m feeling good, so hopefully we can continue this way and move further up the standings again tomorrow.”