Lowes excited to race after positive Phillip Island test
Sam Lowes starts his second WorldSBK campaign in Australia this weekend in confident mood after the Elf Marc VDS Racing Team put the finishing touches to its pre-season preparations at the iconic Phillip Island track today
With action in round one of 12 in 2025 underway on Friday morning, Lowes and his crew worked on fine-tuning the set-up of his Ducati Panigale V4R to suit the fast and flowing Phillip Island layout.
Lowes finished the two-day session less than half-a-second away from the top five and he is now eager to get back racing, with FP1 getting the new season started at 1120am local time on Friday.
/// SAM LOWES: 11TH, 1:29.873, 115 LAPS
A full dry opening day on track in Australia allowed Lowes to complete a total of 67 laps on Pirelli’s slick tyres and he closed proceedings with a best time of 1:30.150.
That placed the Briton 12th but he was only 0.4s off the top four on an incredibly close leaderboard.
Lowes fired in his best time of the test in a 34-lap stint in dry conditions on the second morning, with a 1:29.873 placing him 11th fastest overall.
Having already lapped nearly a second faster than his day one best, the 34-year-old was aiming to take another step forward in the final session, but rain fell and he only completed an additional 14 laps.
“It’s been a positive test and now I can’t wait to go racing”
“It’s been a positive test to finish our pre-season. We didn’t have the best weather in Portimão and Jerez, so we had a lot of work to get through here in Phillip Island and it was important for me to find more speed and feeling with the bike. Each session on track I was feeling better and overall it has been a positive two days. My race pace is strong and I’ve been able to do a consistently fast pace which is pleasing. We need to close the gap to the front group and this test has highlighted a couple of key points we need to work on at the race weekend. But I’m really happy with how I’m understanding the package, so we go into the weekend feeling optimistic about our chances. It’s nice to get the final test done and now I can’t wait to get the racing started. I feel we are in a position to fight for some strong results to kick off the year and I’m really looking forward to it.”