With the countdown to their much anticipated second WorldSBK Championship campaign well and truly underway, Sam Lowes and the Elf Marc VDS Racing Team have been on track for the first time in 2025 at the Circuito de Jerez-Angel Nieto

Joining the majority of a star-studded 2025 WorldSBK line-up at a two-day test session, Lowes was eager to get back to work and up to speed on his Ducati Panigale V4R machine ahead of the opening round in Australia in just over four weeks.

Lowes placed inside the top 10 on day one before rain unfortunately prevented the Briton from working through a planned busy testing schedule on the second day.

The Elf Marc VDS Racing Team now leaves Spain to cross the border into Portugal for another two-day test session at the spectacular Algarve International Circuit next week.

/// SAM LOWES: 9TH, 1:40.207, 56 LAPS

Blustery conditions were a feature of the opening day at the 4.42km Andalucia, with Lowes quickly able to reacquaint himself with his Ducati Panigale V4R following the long winter break.

The 34-year-old completed 56 laps on day one, with a best time of 1.40.207 placing him ninth overall. That pace was only 0.072s behind double WorldSBK Champion Alvaro Bautista riding the official factory Ducati, as the Bologna brand impressively filled six of the top nine places on the timesheets.

With wet track conditions denying the team the opportunity to carry out any productive testing, Lowes opted not to venture out on track on the second day.

“It’s nice to be back and I felt up to speed quickly”

“It was nice after the winter break to get back on a WorldSBK machine for the first time in a while and feel that performance and just cool to be back with my crew. It’s a shame the conditions were tough because we had a busy schedule, but it was quite windy on the first day. We decided to only do half a day, but I felt up to speed quickly and we were able to try a race setting that we used testing here in Jerez back in November. The 56 laps I managed were more than we thought we’d complete because coming here we knew the forecasts were for some poor weather. So, nobody really got any productive testing in because of the conditions. Hopefully we’ll get some better weather next week in Portimao and we can knuckle down and do some more positive work.”