Illness and fatigue could not stop Elf Marc VDS Racing Team rider Sam Lowes from charging to a stunning double top five finish in the Cremona WorldSBK round in Italy today

The British star climbed off his sickbed to finish within touching distance of the podium in the Superpole battle before a sensational late attack in Race 2 secured him a hard earned fifth spot.

Today’s great performance has moved Lowes into the top six in the overall standings on 73 points heading to the next round at the Most track in the Czech Republic.

^{/// SAM LOWES:
SUPERPOLE RACE: 4TH
RACE 2: 5TH}

Despite illness leaving Lowes way below his peak physical best for a hectic Sunday schedule, he gave himself the perfect tonic by finishing second in the Warm-Up session before producing a standout display in the 10-lap Superpole clash.

Lowes found himself fourth on lap four and he then mounted a relentless attack for the podium on double WorldSBK Champion Alvaro Bautista before taking the chequered flag just over a second behind the Spaniard.

Starting from the middle of the second row in fifth for Race 2, the full distance over 23 laps was always going to provide a stern test for Lowes given the illness issues he’s had to contend with throughout round four.

The 34-year-old though called on all his reserves of energy to streak away from a big group battling for seventh which included Andrea Iannone, Michael van der Mark and Remy Gardner.

Lowes then gritted his teeth and set about chasing down Andrea Locatelli and with eight laps remaining he picked off the Italian before finding himself locked in an enthralling and nail-biting late battle with Honda duo Lecuona and Xavi Vierge.

Riding on pure adrenaline, Lowes somehow summoned up the strength for one final push and he clinched an excellent fifth by passing Vierge on lap 21 and Lecuona on the final lap.

“To finish fourth and fifth feels absolutely mega”

“It feels great for myself and the whole team to come away from today with a double top five considering some of the issues we’ve had to deal with this weekend. I wasn’t sure this morning that I was even going to be able to race today, so to come away with a fourth and fifth feels absolutely mega. It hasn’t been easy with me not feeling well yesterday and today but I felt I showed good pace in both the Superpole race and Race 2 and that’s all because of the great job the team did in giving me a very strong package. I really enjoyed riding today and it is another solid weekend for us where we finished all the races and had good pace even feeling like I did. It’s something for us to build on moving forward and I’m sure we can be in the mix again in Most.”