Sam Lowes didn’t meet his expectations on Sunday at the Portugese round of the World Superbike Championship but fought until the end as he finished tenth in the Superpole Race and 15th in Race 2. 

Sam Lowes gained two places to finish the Superpole Race in tenth before fighting back from a tricky start to Race 2.

Even if he scored just six points this weekend, the 36-year old still sits a solid fifth in the championship standings with just one round to go.

^{// SAM LOWES: Superpole: 10th, Race 2: 15th}

Conditions were warm and dry on Sunday for the Portuguese round of the WorldSBK Championship with ambient temperatures sitting at 20 degrees ahead of Race 2.

Keen to find some improvements after Saturday, Lowes showed some solid speed in Warm Up as he set the ninth fastest time.

The Briton was keen to start the Superpole Race well from twelfth on the grid and fight for the top ten places. He succeeded thanks to a strong start and was sat tenth at the close of lap one.

Despite the close attentions of brother Alex, the 36-year old held the position until the chequered flag.

Lowes didn’t have an ideal start to Race 2 as he ended the first lap back in 16th. Then a mistake on lap three dropped him to 21st place.

But Lowes never gave in. Despite not feeling fully comfortable on his Elf Marc VDS Racing Team Ducati Panigale V4R, he managed to gain six places in the next 17 laps to come home 15th.

The point gained in Race 2 means Sam remains 5th in the overall standings. He now has 225 points, just twelve back of fourth, before heading to Jerez in Spain for the twelfth and final round of the Championship on 16th-18th October.

“It’s tough to accept when you have weekends like this but I’m glad we have another round coming up straight away.” 

“It was a tough weekend. I want to apologise to the team as I didn’t feel good from the first day. And I wasn’t able to improve from then. We tried many different things on the bike to help me but I just couldn’t feel comfortable or click with the track. Sorry to the team for the performance. It’s not acceptable. It’s tough to accept when you have weekends like this but I’m glad we have another round coming up straight away. I love Jerez and have had some good results there in the past so the aim is to rest and reset over the coming days and then we’ll try to end this season on a high. That’s the aim for next week.”