A gloriously sunny Sunday at the Algarve International Circuit in Portugal saw Elf Marc VDS Racing Team rider Sam Lowes claim valuable points in round two of the WorldSBK Championship

The British rider kicked off proceedings with a gritty ride into the top six in the Superpole encounter and then rode his Ducati Panigale V4R close to the top 10 in a restarted Race 2.

With round two of 12 completed, Lowes sits eighth in the overall classification on 30 points heading to the historic Assen track for the Dutch round on the weekend of April 11-13.

/// SUPERPOLE RACE: 5^th

///  RACE 2: 6^th 

Lowes quickly put the disappointment of crashing out of podium contention in Saturday’s Race 1 to the back of his mind to finish in a strong sixth place in the 10-lap Superpole battle.

Lowes posted the fastest sector two time in the quickfire clash and crossed the line as the second ranked Independent Team rider to ensure he has finished inside the top six in both Superpole races so far in 2025.

Pushed back to 14^th on a frantic opening lap of Race 2, Lowes was looking to progress forward into top 10 contention when red flags came out with 11 laps remaining after an incident in turn one.

Race 2 was restarted over an 11-lap distance and Lowes eventually took the chequered flag in a hard-fought 11^th position to finish just two-tenths-of-a-second away from completing a double top 10.

“It’s been a positive weekend and we’ve made steps forward”

“I was disappointed to miss out on the podium in Race 1, so it was nice to bounce back today with a strong ride to sixth in the Superpole race. I showed some good speed throughout, and it was nice to get a good feeling back. It was a shame about my start in Race 2. My starts all weekend have been really good, but unfortunately when I needed one I didn’t make a clean launch. Before the red flag I had a strange feeling with the bike as well and this certainly wasn’t helping me get into a rhythm. We need to analyse that and then for the restart we used the hard front tyre which I haven’t used all year so far. I was still able to run a decent pace and was looking to finish strong and push for that top 10 but with about three laps remaining I started having a problem with the shifter. I slowed and tried to check everything was fine with the gearbox and if we didn’t have that issue, I am sure we could have finished a couple of places further up. I still think it’s been a positive weekend and we’ve made steps forward. This was my first time racing a WorldSBK machine here in Portimão and we can be proud of the job we’ve done and look forward to Assen.”