A jubilant Sam Lowes stated that the Assen WorldSBK round was the “best” he felt over a race weekend in the series.
The former Moto2 race winner switched paddocks in 2024 and struggled to find his feet straight away, finishing a distant 18th position in the championship.
The Lincolnshire-born star secured only 53 points throughout the entire 2024 season and battled numerous injuries along the way, but in 2025 he has nearly eclipsed that total in just three rounds.
In Saturday’s Superpole, Lowes secured his first-ever WorldSBK pole position before going on to claim his first podium, recovering from a torrid start to finish on the rostrum in the 10-lap sprint on Sunday.
“This year, it’s been slowly getting, you know, slowly evolving, slowly getting better for loads of reasons,” Lowes told media including Motorsport Week.
“So definitely my best. Also, the best I felt on the bike. Everything was sort of in front of me happening a bit easier, a bit calmer, so like this is the way forward.”
Sam Lowes discusses thought process behind SE2 tyre choice
Lowes reflected that his tyre choice played a part at the halfway point of Race 2, but made the best of the situation to claim fourth place.
“In Race 2, I went with the SE2 front, thinking that, you know, obviously didn’t do the last few laps yesterday, so sort of if people drop and thought SE2 would be the way to go. I don’t know if it was.
“It wasn’t too bad at the end, but I was really struggling in the middle, really struggling to turn the bike and I really wore the front of it in the parc ferme.
“Mine did look as bad or even worse with SC2. So on paper was the wrong call, I don’t know. It wasn’t a disaster, but obviously a little bit slower the two, but it should be better at the end, but managed it alright.
“I was behind Remy [Gardner], sort of holding stationed it. I felt like I could push a little bit, maybe back with him, but I think I was sort of happy to take fourth or fifth today. With the way the day has gone, it would have been a good result.”
He admitted that Nicolo Bulega’s retirement gave him a buzz, but opted to bring the bike home rather than risk a crash.
“And then I saw Nicolo [Bulega] stop unfortunately for him, but there was only two laps to go and I thought ‘could have had a podium there’.
“But I was then I pushed a lit and lost the front about three times on the second to last lap and I thought, no, I can’t I can’t get there.
“But I’m happy enough, I think it’s a positive weekend and the way I’m riding the bike is slowly getting better in the Superbike style and yeah, managed it well.”
