Battling top 10 for Lowes in Phillip Island opener
Elf Marc VDS Racing Team rider Sam Lowes raced to a top 10 finish as the 2025 WorldSBK campaign kicked off in dominant fashion for Ducati today at the iconic Phillip Island track in Australia
Race 1 in 2025 was always going to be a fascinating battle, with ambient temperatures rocketing to a demanding 36 degrees and each rider having to comply with a mandatory pit stop in the 20-lap encounter.
No more than 11 laps were permitted to be completed before the pit stop and Lowes opted to change rear tyre after 10 laps.
Lowes is back in action tomorrow with the Superpole race due for lights out at 1pm local time and Race 2 underway at 4pm.
/// SAM LOWES: 10TH
The first day of race action in this year’s WorldSBK Championship got off to a bright start for Lowes, who posted the seventh fastest time in FP3 this morning to sit only 0.3s away from second position.
A 1:29.412 was comfortably his best time of the weekend and confidence was high heading into the all-important Superpole session.
Glorious late summer sunshine saw temperatures soar to a sweltering 33 degrees and Lowes fired in a lap of 1:29.870 to qualify on the fourth row in 11th.
Down to 13th at the halfway stage of Race 1, Lowes produced a brilliant charge after the pitstop and he set the second fastest lap of the race to pass Ryan Vickers, Domi Aegerter and Xavi Vierge and claim a hard-fought top 10.
“My pace after the pit stop shows we have great potential”
“A top 10 to start the year is a solid result but I am not going to lie, I was expecting a bit more. After I made the pit stop my pace was really fast, and I was able to set the second fastest lap of the race and set a pace that was as competitive as the front group. But in the first part of the race it was very difficult to manage because I had no feeling. I just didn’t have any feeling with the front, and I couldn’t be fast enough, so that’s a little disappointing and we need to analyse why and make sure it doesn’t happen again tomorrow. We’ll keep working hard together and I’m happy to put some decent points on the board, but we want more and we know with our package we can do a better job.
Setting the second fastest lap of the race though definitely gives me a lot of confidence for the Superpole race and Race 2 because it shows we have the potential.”