Gloriously sunny conditions on Italy’s Adriatic Coast greeted Sam Lowes and the Elf Marc VDS Racing Team as round four in this year’s WorldSBK Championship got underway at the Misano World Circuit Marco Simoncelli.

• Lowes opened his account in FP1 this morning with 21 laps completed in warm temperatures of 23 degrees, as the 33-year-old worked on set-up tweaks based on data analysed from a recent testing appearance on board the Ducati Panigale V4 R in Misano.
• A crash at turn five in this afternoon’s FP2 didn’t knock Lowes out of his stride and the Briton returned to the track to improve his time from this morning by nearly 0.6s with a best lap of 1:34.382.
• Lowes ended day one in ninth position overall and he was the second ranked Independent Team rider on the leaderboard to bolster confidence heading into Superpole at 11am local time tomorrow before Race 1, which is set to commence at 2pm.

/// SAM LOWES: 9^th, 1:34.382, 41 laps

“Not an easy day but I’m still in the top 10”

“It wasn’t the easiest start for us, but we have been able to understand a few things that I’m sure will help make us more competitive tomorrow. The track conditions were quite different to when we tested here recently and that made it challenging to be consistent. Even though I wasn’t feeling comfortable on the bike we were still able to lap inside the top 10. I’ll have a sit down with my crew tonight to work out where we can find some improvements but I’m sure we can put all the pieces of the puzzle together and be ready for a good battle on Saturday and Sunday.”