Bike problems hamper Sam Lowes at Misano WorldSBK: “Even the laps I did were hindered”

Sam Lowes said he suffered “problems all day” on the Marc VDS Ducati at the Misano WorldSBK.

The British rider, contesting his second year in the World Superbike Championship with Marc VDS this year, was unable to complete a timed lap at all in FP2, stopping on-track twice in the afternoon session.

This came after he was forced to sit out the final minutes of FP1 on Friday morning as a result of technical problems.

“It was one of those days,” Lowes told WorldSBK.com after FP2 in Emilia-Romagna.

“We lost also the last 15 minutes of [FP1], so not too many laps today – saving some energy, it’s going to be warm!

“Something with the bike, it didn’t run properly so we were not able to set a lap time which was obviously frustrating.

“Luckily we had the test, so we have some information.”

Lowes added that losing FP2 was unfortunate given the high track temperatures.

“It would’ve been nice, this afternoon, to get some laps, because it was the first time the track temperature had been above 50 degrees [Celsius], and it’s going to be really important for Race 1 and Race 2,” he said.

Lowes was able to finish eighth in FP1, but he said even the laps he did in the morning session were affected by some problems.

“To be honest, we had problems all day,” he said.

“Even the laps I did were hindered by some issues. It’s okay, it’s one of those things.

“We just need to do a good job tonight, analyse well, try to understand.

“We think we know what happened, or what’s causing the problem, so hopefully we go out in FP3, feel good, and spin some laps.”

Finally, the Marc VDS Ducati rider admitted that it was fortunate to run into such problems at a track where he had tested recently.

“Very lucky to have had the two-day test,” he said.

“I think if it was a track where we didn’t have any testing it would be a lot more difficult, but the base of the bike, the rhythm we had at the test was quite positive.”