Cool temperatures and strong winds couldn’t stop the Elf Marc VDS Racing Team and Sam Lowes from impressing on the opening day of action in round three of the WorldSBK Championship at the legendary Assen track.

• The Briton’s first appearance on Ducati’s Panigale V4 R at the high speed Assen track was an impressive one, with Lowes firing in a 1:36.532 on his final lap this morning to finish top Independent rider at the end of a productive FP1 session.
• With ambient temperatures barely reaching 10 degrees throughout the day, Lowes was in fine form again in FP2 this afternoon to lap almost half-a-second faster and a time of 1:36.066 placed him seventh before late rain presented the opportunity to assess Pirelli’s wet weather rubber.
• Lowes ended the opening day in Assen in eighth position overall and confidence is high he can challenge for a top position in Superpole at 11am local time tomorrow ahead of Race 1 which is set to commence at 2pm.

/// SAM LOWES: 8^th, 1:36.066, 29 laps

“I feel good on the bike and the team did an amazing job”

“Once again, the weather has played a big part here in Assen today and it feels like we had everything thrown at us. There was sun, rain, and wind but most of all it is very cold. The cold and the wind certainly made it a baptism of fire riding a superbike here for the first time. I still feel we managed to get the maximum out of today and it was also good to get in a few laps on the rain tyres at the end of FP2 to gain some more experience. We are playing catch up here a little bit because today was my first day on a WorldSBK machine here in Assen and we’ve not tested here before, so there are plenty of areas where we can improve. I feel good on the bike and the team did an amazing job again, so we need to see what the weather does but hopefully I can be competitive again tomorrow.”