Just days away from its eagerly anticipated WorldSBK debut in Australia, the Elf Marc VDS Racing Team put the finishing touches to its pre-season preparations today with Sam Lowes completing a successful one-day test session at the Phillip Island track.

• Adapting the base setting of his Ducati Panigale V4 R machine to suit the fast and flowing Phillip Island layout was a key goal for Lowes and his crew while also assessing grip levels and tyre performance on a new surface at the 4.4km track.
• The new surface delivered record-breaking lap times, but the main focus for Lowes was endurance testing Pirelli’s race rubber in advance of this weekend’s season opener.
• The British rider ended with a best time of 1:29.432 in a marathon stint of 96 laps to finish just over 0.2s away from the top five.

/// SAM LOWES: 11^th, 1:29.432, 96 laps

“I think we can be in the mix for good results this weekend”

“This final test has been a good one for me and the team and that was important going into our first race this weekend. It was a busy day, I did a lot of laps and we made some improvements with the bike which are going to help me during the race weekend. We’ve got some more ideas on how to improve when we are back on track on Friday and I also need to improve my riding in some points because riding a WorldSBK machine here at Phillip Island is very different to Moto2. It’s great to ride this track though on the Ducati and I’ve had a lot of fun. The final position could be better but a time attack wasn’t really the priority today because we wanted to get as much data as we could in race trim. My race pace is positive and strong and I think we can be in the mix for good results this weekend and I can’t wait to make my debut in WorldSBK.”