Sam Lowes and the Elf Marc VDS Racing Team produced a strong Saturday showing in the opening round of this year’s WorldSBK Championship in Australia today, with the Briton powering to a superb front row start before claiming a hard earned fifth in Race 1

In gloriously sunny conditions at the fast and fearsome Phillip Island track, Lowes opened his account in 2026 with 11 points for fifth from third on the grid in the 22-lap Race 1.

With plenty of important data collected, Lowes is determined to feature in the podium battle in the Superpole Race tomorrow at 1pm local time and in Race 2 at 4pm.

^{// SAM LOWES: Superpole: 3rd, Race 1: 5th}

Lowes made a blistering start to the Saturday schedule when a lap of 1:28.575 saw him finish second in a Ducati 1-2 behind factory star Nicolo Bulega in FP3 this morning.

The 35-year-old carried that momentum into the first Superpole session of the season and Lowes starred once again as a hot lap of 1:28.729 propelled him to the sixth front row start of his WorldSBK career.

Once it was lights out for the opening race action of 2026, Lowes was locked in some intense early battles with twin brother Alex and Axel Bassani.

Pushed back to sixth place on lap seven by Bassani, Lowes charged back into the top five four laps later when he found a way back through on Alex.

Lowes then exerted constant pressure on Bassani in a captivating clash for fifth spot, with the gap less than 0.2s on lap 14 when Lowes produced his fastest lap of Race 1 before the Italian eventually secured fourth place.

“It’s good to start the season with a solid result” 

“It was certainly a good start to the day when I was able to qualify on the front row. Top three in Superpole is always the target and we achieved that. But I’m a little disappointed with myself in how Race 1 went, and certainly the start and first few laps. I didn’t feel I was riding well and got caught napping a bit and didn’t put myself in a good position. It just took me too long to get going but I do feel from the middle point to the end of the race I dug in well and was able to bring home some solid points. It feels good to get a decent performance under my belt because I missed the last two rounds of last year with an injury, so it is a long time since I’ve been in a race situation. We expected more but sometimes that’s racing and we’ll try and improve and be stronger tomorrow.”