Sam Lowes was contesting a podium place at Most in Czechia when contact from another rider caused him to crash out of the weekend’s first WorldSBK race.

Having qualified 4^th, Lowes was fighting Alberto Surra early on in Race 1 when contact caused him to crash out at Turn 16.

Lowes believes some tweaks to his setting could aid his podium quest in Sunday’s Superpolerace at 11am local time and Race 2 at 2pm.

^{// SAM LOWES: Superpole: 4th, Race 1: DNF} 

Having ended Friday at the tight, technical Most Circuit with the third quickest time, Sam struggled to feel comfortable in FP2 on Saturday morning, as he placed 11^th.

The Briton felt his way into the Superpole session. His best lap came at the start of his second run, which was enough to put the Elf Marc VDS Racing Team Ducati Panigale V4R in 4^th place.

Lowes started the 21-lap race well and was feeling comfortable in the early laps as he contested fourth place with Alberto Surra.

Keen to pass the Italian and make his way into the fight for the podium places, Lowes took fourth place with a clean move at Turn 15 on lap four.

Unfortunately, contact from Surra at the following turn caused Lowes to crash out of a promising position.

Still, the Englishman could take the positives from the day. He showed strong speed before the fall, and will launch from 4^th in tomorrow’s Superpole race.

“Luckily, we have two races tomorrow and we’ll be starting fourth”

“Honestly, it was a difficult day today. We had a few problems and I didn’t really find a good feeling in FP3, with the issues we had. We managed to save it in qualifying and I put a good lap in with my second tyre to qualify fourth. That was really important at this track, where overtaking can be quite difficult. Then in the race we had a coming together with another rider. It wasn’t my fault so it’s very frustrating to crash so early on and not get the feedback from the full race. But the feeling was good in those early laps and I felt like we could have had a solid race. Luckily, we have two races tomorrow and we’ll be starting fourth again in the Superpole race. We’ll come up with a good plan tonight and think about the tyre choice. I think there could be a combination of tyres in the Superpole race, which we haven’t had for a while. That could be interesting. We’ll get a good rest tonight and be ready for it.”