It was a case of what could have been for Sam Lowes at Magny-Cours as he fell from fourth place in Sunday’s Superpole Race and retired out of Race 2 with an engine failure.

Sam Lowes suffered a double DNF on Sunday despite showing podium potential in the two races at the technical French venue.

Even if he failed to score points on Sunday, the 34-year old still sits 6^th in the championship standings with three rounds to go.

^{/// SAM LOWES:
SUPERPOLE RACE: DNF
RACE 2: DNF}

Conditions were perfect on Sunday for the French round of the WorldSBK Championship as each of the day’s sessions took place under clear skies and moderate temperatures.

That meant Lowes had with a good chance to assess his feelings for the day’s two races in Warm-Up, when he placed 2^nd, just 0.039s behind the fastest time.

The Briton was in a confident frame of mind for the 10-lap shootout. Lowes started well from 3^rd on the grid to hold his position and then jumped up to 2^nd on lap 3 when he set the 2^nd fastest lap of the race.

The 34-year old was well positioned in a 3-rider fight for 2^nd place but fell at Turn 1 with four laps remaining.

That dropped Lowes to 10^th on the grid for Race 2. He started the 21-lap race well, gaining a place on the first lap and settling in to his rhythm.

But it was clear from the early laps that all was not well with Sam’s bike. With 15 laps to go, he was forced to retire due to an engine failure.

Despite a tricky weekend in France, Sam remains in 6^th place in the overall standings. He now has 163 points before heading to Aragon in Spain for Round 10 at the end of September.

“There are still lots of positives to take, even if it’s hard to be happy at this moment.”

“Obviously it’s a very disappointing Sunday when you don’t score any points. Yesterday I was relatively happy with how I rode. I made a small mistake at the end but I still finished the race. This morning in the Superpole Race Toprak was really strong. I got a decent start and was in my rhythm. I made a mistake at Turn 6 and dropped back to P4. But everything was going well. Then I just locked the front really early when going into Turn 1. It pushed me wide and maybe I should’ve picked it up and run off track. But as it’s a 10-lap race I tried to make the corner and then lost the front. Then in the last race it was a bike problem that caused us to stop. It was no fault of the team. I started P10 and was ninth on the first lap. But we were already struggling with something on the bike at that point which then led to us not finishing the race. It’s not unlucky because it’s part of the game. And this morning was my mistake. I’m disappointed because we have nothing to show from the weekend. But obviously we were fast and competitive here. I qualified on the front row and was fast in all the sessions. I was battling with the factory Ducati this morning. There are still lots of positives to take, even if it’s hard to be happy at this moment. The team, we’re all united and showing signs of how well we’re doing. We have a one-day test at Jerez coming up and then Aragon. We’ll put this one behind us. Thanks to the team for all their hard work and let’s see what we can do at the next one.”