Race 1 at the Most WorldSBK round in the Czech Republic took place in sweltering temperatures close to 30 degrees this afternoon and a determined Sam Lowes collected a points finish for the Elf Marc VDS Racing Team

• Having improved by 1.2s in two Free Practice sessions yesterday, Lowes found another massive improvement in Superpole this morning and a hot lap of 1:31.345 shaved another second off his Friday benchmark to claim a place on row four for the 22-lap Race 1.
• As track temperatures soared close to a sizzling 50 degrees, Pirelli tyre management was always going to play a key role and Lowes produced a mistake free performance to collect important data ahead of the Sunday Superpole race and Race 2.
• Lowes kept up constant pressure on Michael Ruben Rinaldi in an intense battle for 11th and having been nearly three seconds adrift of the Italian at one stage he finished just 0.6s away to start and finish 12^th.

/// SAM LOWES: 12^th

“I’m looking forward to seeing how much we can improve tomorrow”

“I know on paper the result doesn’t look fantastic and we want to be further up, but I’m satisfied with how I finished considering some issues I was dealing with. It was a solid race and important to gain some experience and data for tomorrow’s action and we managed that. I had a physical issue with my arm that certainly didn’t help, but I made sure with this being my first race in Most that I didn’t make any mistakes and managed my pace well. Now we have that first race under our belt here and know a bit more about what to expect over a full race distance, I’m looking forward to seeing how much we can improve tomorrow.”