Elf Marc VDS Racing Team star Sam Lowes continued his excellent run of form in this year’s WorldSBK Championship to finish inside the top three on the opening day of action in the Hungarian round at Balaton Park

Third fastest and top Independent Team rider in the morning FP1 session, Lowes matched that performance in the second practice as he once again emerged as the lead challenger to factory Ducati duo Iker Lecuona and Nicolo Bulega.

The battle for pole position in Superpole will be underway at 1115am local time tomorrow before it’s lights out for Race 1 at 1530pm

/// SAM LOWES: 3rd, 1:39.001, 39 laps

On a sunny but cool first morning of May, Lowes was immediately back in the groove in FP1 after his triple podium in Assen last time out and a best lap of 1:39.922 put him third on the timesheets.

With temperatures climbing from 15 to 20 degrees by the time pit lane was open for FP2, Lowes once again quickly established himself inside the top three and a lap of 1:39.510 put him clear of the field by over two-tenths-of-a-second.

Working on riding style tweaks to maximise the potential of his Ducati Panigale V4R machine, Lowes made constant improvements throughout the second session, and he was always going to be in the mix for the top three in the decisive closing stages.

The Briton didn’t disappoint and a superb late charge of 1:39.001 ensured he would end the opening day in third position, with Lowes less than four-hundredths-of-a-second behind World Championship leader Bulega in second.

The 35-year-old improved by over 0.9s in FP2 as Ducati locked out the top seven places in a dominant session, with Lowes now confident he has the one lap speed to fight for his eighth front row start in tomorrow’s Superpole before attacking for a ninth WorldSBK podium in Race 1.

“I need to improve my consistency in sector two, but overall it was a good day”

“It went well today, it’s obviously a track that I enjoy. Let’s see for tomorrow morning, see if we can make a step. I need to improve my consistency in sector two, but overall it was a good day. The factory boys have a step, so I need to improve on them. I did a longer run this afternoon, so I started to understand the front tyre better, and I’m quite confident for that. I didn’t feel like I rode amazing today, so if I can improve my riding a bit, improve the bike a little bit and then we can push for qually. With this track it looks like there’s a lot of passing places, but in reality, it’s quite difficult to overtake. So let’s see what we can do!”