With the conclusion of the Prosecco DOC UK Round, the MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship’s Sam Lowes (ELF Marc VDS Racing Team) returned to his nearby home after a job well done. He and his team paid tribute to a legend of the motorsport world by returning to the podium in the Tissot Superpole Race. The result marks a seventh podium for the British rider, and a welcome return to the podium after missing the top three at Misano.
Lowes started Race 1 from P4 and seized a good jump off the line at lights out to take P3 from Yari Montella (Barni Spark Racing Team). Montella reclaimed third later on Lap 8, when the #5 retook the podium position after the Englishman ran wide into Turn 1. Three laps later, Montella was already more than a second away, leaving the #14 to a P4 finish behind one of his rivals for third place in the Riders’ Championship.
“IT WAS A SUPER SPECIAL FEELING TO GET A PODIUM IN FRONT OF THE BRITISH FANS”
Sunday morning saw the Brit’s fortunes turn as he again improved to the provisional podium positions in P3 after Iker Lecuona’s (Aruba.it Racing - Ducati) Lap 2 crash from the lead at Turn 12. The #14 put the hammer down early in an effort to build a margin and defend his podium from his brother Alex Lowes (bimota by Kawasaki Racing Team). Helping him build that advantage, Lowes set a personal best time of 1’25.124 on Lap 3, and outpaced his brother by around three tenths on Laps 4 to 7 to finish nearly 2.3 seconds clear of the #22. Despite an improved P3 starting position for Race 2 and riding in the top five over the first half of the race, on Lap 19 of 23, Lowes put his hand up as though to signal a tech issue before being passed by Garrett Gerloff (Kawasaki WorldSBK Team) at the Old Hairpin. The American ran away from him in the final laps, but the #14 held on to finish the race. A sizeable gap over Lorenzo Baldassarri (Team GoEleven) in eighth meant Lowes could comfortably bring the bike home in seventh.
Looking back on the weekend and what it meant to the team, Sam Lowes said: “We can look back on this weekend as a positive one given how difficult the build-up has been. I was super proud to get on the podium in the Superpole race this morning because I really wanted that to honour the memory of Marc. It was also a super special feeling to get a podium in front of the British fans. Their support has been phenomenal once again, and I love racing at Donington. The track is awesome, the support is mega, and each year I come back, it seems the backing I get just keeps getting bigger and bigger. It’s a shame that I wasn’t able to keep myself in that battle for the podium in Race 2, but we encountered some issues that made it really tough for me to maintain my pace. That was unfortunate, but it can happen in racing. The important thing was to get three good results here, which I did, and we can go into the summer break with confidence going to France.”
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