Elf Marc VDS Racing Team rider Sam Lowes made a positive start to the Dutch WorldSBK round in Assen today to finish day one within striking distance of the top three

Both sessions took place at the legendary Assen track in dry conditions and Lowes took full advantage to complete important set-up work on his Ducati Panigale V4R machine ahead of two days of intense race action on Saturday and Sunday

Lowes was immediately fast in FP1 this morning to set the third quickest time, and he closed proceedings sixth on the overall timesheets going into Superpole tomorrow at 1115am local time where the Briton is bidding for a second successive pole in the Netherlands

/// SAM LOWES: 6th, 1:34.143, 39 laps

With air temperatures only reaching a cool 15 degrees this morning, an early attack of 1:34.428 fired Lowes into P1 in FP1 and that time eventually secured him third on the leaderboard behind the factory Ducati pairing of Nicolo Bulega and Iker Lecuona.

Lowes completed 18 laps this morning and he was certainly busy gathering vital race data in FP2 this afternoon with only twin brother Alex and Axel Bassani completing more laps in the second session.

The 35-year-old completed 21 laps of the iconic 4.54km Assen track and his best came on lap nine when he was able to fire in a 1:34.143.

Lap times were super close and competitive in slightly warmer temperatures of 18 degrees this afternoon and Lowes was placed sixth overall, but his best time was less than two-tenths-of-a-second behind Lorenzo Baldassarri in second position.

It wasn’t only his fast lap times that left Lowes satisfied, but his non-stop work to regain full fitness after recent left hand and left wrist fractures has paid off with no pain reported while tackling the fast and flowing Assen layout on day one.

“We collected good information from today, especially when it comes to tyre life”

“It’s nice to be here in Assen, a track that I enjoy. Today was not bad, we kept the same tyres for all of FP2, which was a positive working towards the race, but we also had a few issues in FP2. I want to improve my riding a bit too, so some things to work on heading into Saturday. I’m in the mix for an important position and I feel I can do something nice. I just need to try and improve those weak points tonight. But we collected good information from today, especially when it comes to tyre life – we need to think about the front tyre because it’s always difficult here at this track. And let’s see the weather tomorrow, we know in Assen it can always play a part, but the forecast is not too bad for Saturday and Sunday.”