Elf Marc VDS Racing Team star Sam Lowes found positives in his first day of Free Practice at Cremona, with the British rider setting the 15^th fastest time of the day.

• While Friday was the first official World Superbike session held on the 3.7km Cremona Circuit in the north of Italy, Sam had previous experience at the track, completing a shakedown test in May aboard Ducati’s Panigale V4R  machine.
• The remnants of Storm Boris were evident on Friday morning as the WorldSBK field took to the track in wet-but-drying conditions. Sam mastered these, as he posted the fastest time of FP1 – and ahead of brother Alex, who was 2^nd!
• Conditions had improved for the afternoon FP2 session, which was held on a dry track. The 34-year old had set the 15^th fastest time – a 1’30.582 – of the day and was pushing to improve before he had a small get off at Turn 11 at the end of the session.

“We had some positive things to take away from the”

“The conditions were quite complicated today. It was a shame to have the crash this afternoon. It was a small mistake which caused the fall which meant we couldn’t finish the session. But we had some positive things to take away from the day and carry into tomorrow. There are a few areas where we need to improve. Sectors 2 and 3 in particular are places where I need to make a step. But I’m enjoying the track. They’ve done a great job with the circuit and the grandstands, which is really nice. It’s cool to ride here and it’s been nice to see a lot of fans out here for a Friday so we’ll try to improve tomorrow and have a good race.”