Elf Marc VDS Racing Team rider Sam Lowes produced a spirited Race 2 recovery to salvage crucial points in the Briton’s bid for third spot in the 2026 WorldSBK Championship 

The third and final day of action at the Misano World Circuit Marco Simoncelli ended on a positive note for Lowes, whose fighting qualities came to the fore as he fought through from 16th to 10th in Race 2.

A 14th top 10 finish of the campaign so far sees Lowes head to his vital home round at Donington Park next month lying fifth in the overall World Championship standings with seven rounds completed.

^{/// SAM LOWES:}
Superpole Race: DNF
Race 2: 10th

Lowes commenced the Sunday action in glorious sunshine with a strong fourth place in the morning Warm Up session, which helped rebuild confidence after a crash in Race 1 while charging into top six contention.

Launching away from the fourth row of the grid for the 10-lap Superpole race, Lowes quickly advanced forward into eighth when he unfortunately slid out of contention on the second lap at turn four.

Determined to depart Misano on a positive note after finishing close to the top three in Friday’s practice and setting the fastest time in FP3 on Saturday morning, Lowes kept his cool in a frenetic start to the 21-lap Race 2 to kick off an impressive fightback from 16th.

A key move came on lap 19 when Lowes got the better of Xavi Vierge in an entertaining duel at turn 10 to seize 10th position.

Track temperature for Race 2 soared to a sizzling 52 degrees, but Lowes was still able to produce impressive late race speed and his fastest lap of 1:34.297 came on lap 20 while he was streaking away from Vierge and quickly reeling in Michael van der Mark in ninth.

The 35-year-old gave his all on the final lap to muscle his way into the top nine and he missed out at the chequered flag by half-a-bike length, with the gap to van der Mark just 0.037s.

“I’ll analyse the weekend and work hard to come back stronger” 

“I managed to fight into the top 10 in Race 2, but being completely honest it was another difficult day. I need to apologise to the team because we had good speed in the first part of the weekend and I just didn’t get the job done. I had to really dig deep mentally to finish that last race, and I ended up collecting some important points for the Championship. But all I can say is sorry to the team because I made too many mistakes and didn’t feel comfortable in the hot conditions. I’ll analyse the weekend and like always work hard to improve and make sure we are stronger next time out. Donington Park is next and it’s my home round and I’ll go there looking to try and do a much better job.”