BATTLING LOWES CLOSE TO DOUBLE POINTS FINISH ON HOME SOIL

Elf Marc VDS Racing Team rider Sam Lowes fought hard in front of a passionate British crowd of over 50,000 today at Donington Park but narrowly missed out on a double points haul in the Superpole clash and Race 2.

A great start and aggressive first corner put Lowes inside the top three in the early part of the 10-lap Superpole race this morning and he brilliantly battled inside in the top five until the halfway stage before crossing the finish line in eighth.

Just as he was in qualifying, that result meant Lowes was the top Independent Team rider in the classification and confidence was high of another strong top 10 challenge in Race 2 firing away from row three.

The 33-year-old was in points scoring contention throughout the 23-lap encounter but at its conclusion he was just over 0.1s away from the top 15.

SAM LOWES: Superpole Race: 8th - Race 2: 16th 

“The Superpole race was positive, and it was a good boost to finish inside the top 10 with a solid eighth place. But in Race 2 it was quite difficult. I was missing some feeling on the bike and even though the team are working incredibly hard, and we are trying a lot of changes, I am still missing in some key points. It hasn’t been the weekend we hoped for and I need to improve. I’ve got to improve in my adaptation to a WorldSBK machine and Donington Park has certainly been a tougher track than I anticipated. The good news is we are back on track next weekend in Most where hopefully we can take some steps in the right direction. I have to say a big thanks to all the British fans who came out to support me and I really appreciated the reception they gave me all weekend.”