Sam Lowes capped a brilliant day at Magny-Cours in France by finishing third in Race 1, which was originally red flagged due to another rider’s crash. 

Having qualified second, Lowes stormed to an excellent third place in Race 1, which restarted over twelve laps after a red flag.

Lowes believes some tweaks to his setting could aid his podium quest in Sunday’s Superpole race at 11:10 local time and Race 2 at 14:00.

^{// SAM LOWES: Superpole: 2nd, Race 1: 3rd} 

Having ended Friday at Magny-Cours Circuit with the second quickest time, Lowes worked on his consistency through Sectors two and four during FP3, when he placed seventh.

The Briton was immediately fast in Superpole, jumping to the top spot a few minutes in. After pitting for fresh rubber, Lowes was then under the previous lap record with a 1’34.486 on the first lap of his second run.

Ultimately, Nicolo Bulega took pole position, leaving Lowes’ Elf Marc VDS Racing Team Ducati Panigale V4R in second place, just 0.168s back.

Lowes started Race 1 well. Despite losing a place to Iker Lecuona, he was sitting comfortably in third place when a red flag was shown on lap ten due to crash for Tommy Bridewell.

The restart was held over twelve laps. Lowes held his position on the first lap after launching from third and went on to hold that place until the chequered flag, when he came home 6s back of victor Bulega.

The 35-year old can look toward Sunday positively, as he’ll start tomorrow’s Superpole race from second position.

“It’s nice to come back and qualify on the front row and finish on the podium” 

“Overall, I’m really happy with the day. I’m proud of my lap in the morning because I was under the lap record and close to pole position. So, this is nice as we know it’s so important to start from a good position. I was struggling a little bit before the restart, which is a shame. But I think the result would’ve been the same if the race hadn’t been stopped. I had a gap back to Alex (Lowes) and was going quite well. We just need to analyse some things tonight because there are a few things that can help me be more consistent. Thanks to the team for all their work so far this weekend. After such a long break, it’s nice to come back and qualify on the front row and then finish on the podium. We have two more goes tomorrow. The aim will be to try and be a bit closer to the boys at the front. Let’s see what we can do!”