Sam Lowes: “Whenever you’re top of the timesheets it’s a nice feeling”

Sam Lowes admitted it’s “a nice feeling” to be top of the times on Friday at the Hungarian WorldSBK.

Lowes was the only rider to join Toprak Razgatlioglu in the 1:39s on Friday at Balaton Park, which this weekend is hosting the first Hungarian World Superbike round since 1990.

The British rider said that he was happy with the speed he had in FP2 despite temperatures climbing to over 40C on the track.

“Whenever you’re top of the timesheets it’s a nice feeling,” Lowes told WorldSBK.com on Friday at Balaton.

“I enjoyed the track, I enjoyed riding the Superbike here. We did ride the track a few weeks ago with the training bike, but it’s always different with the Superbike.

“It was a positive day. FP2 was a lot hotter but we still had a good feeling.”

Lowes made a substantial improvement in lap time in FP2 compared to the morning session. He explained this was down to using a new tyre at the end of the afternoon session.

“In FP1 I kept the same tyre for all the session,” he said.

“At the end I improved a bit the lap time over the runs. Then I tried to do a long run at the start of FP2.

“So, I think the lap time came because I had a new tyre at the end, so it was more for the new tyre than pushing too much.

“Definitely in sector two I improved over the day – this morning I was missing something in the line there – and still I have to work a bit in sector four because I can do some good ones but I need to find a bit better braking marker for the final chicane to improve it.

“It’s a really nice track, really complex – many points to make time, also to lose time – so it’s important to keep focused and do a good job tonight, looking at the data, and try to make some steps.”