A stunning Superpole performance and points scoring finish in Race 1 completed a solid Saturday for Sam Lowes and the Elf Marc VDS Racing Team at the Estoril track in Portugal.

• Lowes started the 21-lap battle as the second highest Independent Team qualifier after he shone on a damp surface in this morning’s Superpole to head row three after missing a top six grid slot by just 0.045s.
• The 4.18km track had completely dried out for Race 1, but with such limited time on Pirelli’s slick rubber prior to lights out, Lowes was patient to avoid committing mistakes in an incident-packed race.
• The 34-year-old was locked in one of the most intense battles of the race with Tito Rabat, Michael Ruben Rinaldi and Scott Redding and he took the chequered flag less than one second away from an excellent top 10.

/// SAM LOWES: 13^th

“I’m confident we can be stronger tomorrow”

 “Qualifying was a good boost this morning because I wasn’t feeling comfortable in the wet conditions throughout the weekend, so it was really nice to find such a good lap time and be so close to the top six. The race wasn’t easy because I’ve never raced in Estoril before, and the lack of dry track time certainly didn’t help me get up to speed faster or give us the time to work on the dry set-up. We are certainly lacking experience compared to most of the field here, so it was always going to be a massive task to be right in the mix. I feel my pace was consistent and we’ve gained a lot of data for tomorrow, so if it is dry then I’m confident we can be stronger.”