Sam Lowes (ELF Marc VDS Racing Team) in 2025 has established himself as one of the quickest riders on the grid after his bumpy 2024 MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship season. The #14 earned his first WorldSBK podium at Assen earlier this season and will come into Misano on a five-race streak of finishing P5 or higher. If the pair of days at Misano’s Test were to count, his streak would extend to a consecutive seven. While Toprak Razgatlioglu (ROKiT BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team) and Nicolo Bulega (Aruba.it Racing - Ducati) still seem like they have something more in their pockets, Lowes will have his work cut out for him fighting with Alvaro Bautista (Aruba.it Racing - Ducati), Danilo Petrucci (Barni Spark Racing Team), Andrea Locatelli (Pata Maxus Yamaha) and others for the final spot on the podium.

LOCKING IN: “It was a positive day; the team did a really good job. We tried a few things, and we have a good direction for the race weekend.”

The #14’s times improved from every Free Practice to the next, finishing Day 1 in P5, his 1’33.451s time only 0.168s slower than Alvaro Bautista (Aruba.it Racing - Ducati) in P4. Day 2’s FP3 saw his time improve by nearly four tenths of a second to 1’33.068s, and after FP4, he shaved off another two tenths of a second to finish with 1’32.820. His time landed him P4 behind Axel Bassani (bimota by Kawasaki Racing Team), just 0.022s behind ‘El Bocia’.

On his trending-upwards Day 2, Lowes said, “It was a positive day; the team did a really good job. We tried a few things, and we have a good direction for the race weekend. We’re pretty strong with the race tyre, I’m happy with the pace we have and the lap times we can do. We did a little bit of time with the SCQ tyre at the end and made a small step, but after 88 laps at that point, I was pretty tired. It was good to try for the weekend, I feel like right now we’re definitely in the podium fight big time, just missing something to keep up with Bulega and Toprak, who look like they found something on Day 2. It’s been a positive test for us, we know where we can improve. We need to analyse a bit more, and now we look towards the race weekend in a positive manner.”

NEW PANIGALE V4 R: “I saw Pirro on top of the new bike a little bit, I’m looking forward to getting on it at some point.”

One of the eye-catching storylines from the Misano Test was the presence of Ducati’s new Superbike, undergoing testing in anticipation of its release and homologation into the WorldSBK paddock at some point. Until its introduction, Lowes and the rest of the grid’s Ducati riders remain atop the more-than-capable current model. For Lowes’ specific bikes, he and his team worked on squaring away the setup for Misano’s race weekend.

On the changes to his current setup and looking ahead to at some point working with the new bike, Lowes said, “Nothing massively new that we were trying, obviously there is the new Ducati Panigale V4 R which is coming at some point, so this version of the bike is nearing the end of its development cycle. We were more focused on the feeling on the bike and the electronics. I saw Pirro on top of the new bike a little bit. He looked good, and although you can’t see much with how it was painted, I’m looking forward to getting on it at some point.”

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