The racing action from the Motul French Round might be fresh in the memories for the MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship field, but that hasn’t stopped a few riders heading to MotorLand Aragon for a test. Sam Lowes (ELF Marc VDS Racing Team) ventured to Spain from France to test at a venue which he knows from his time in Moto2™ but will be new to him on a World Superbike machine ahead of the round in a couple of weeks.

The #14 completed 94 laps during his one day of testing at the Spanish venue with a best lap time of 1’48.757s. That time – while direct comparisons can’t be made due to conditions and a new surface – was around eight tenths slower than the pole record, a 1’47.973s set by Jonathan Rea for Kawasaki in 2023. It was, however, just over two tenths quicker than the race lap record, again held by Rea, which is currently a 1’49.028s.

Lowes was injured at the Autodrom Most in Race 2 when he crashed at Turn 1 and suffered from a left collarbone fracture, which forced him to sit out of the Portuguese Round. The Brit hit the track at Estoril a few days later to make his comeback during a test and returned to racing action at Magny-Cours, although didn’t score points after retiring from Race 1 and Race 2 and finishing 16^th in the Tissot Superpole Race.

“That was a long but positive day of testing which came at a good time for me to get some laps in after the injury lay-off,” started Lowes when speaking about his one-day test. “The shoulder is a bit sore, but I felt we made good progress throughout on a track that I really enjoy and know very well from my time in Moto2™. That was why my feeling on the bike was immediately better and the team did a great job with some changes to give me some confidence and feeling again. After a tough weekend at Magny-Cours this was the best possible day we could have had, and I really appreciate the team making a big effort to come to this test in such a busy period. We found a step improving my pace over the longer distance on used tyres and now I’m looking forward to being back in Aragon in a couple of weeks.”

Aragon is a circuit Lowes knows extremely well with his experience from Moto™, winning three races there in total – in 2016 and two in 2020 – with all three victories coming after he claimed pole position. He also has a podium finish, claiming third in 2015 after starting from P4. He won there in WorldSSP in 2012, showing his pace at the circuit on numerous occasions and he’ll be hoping he can use a mixture of his previous success and strong test to be back in the mix after a few difficult rounds.

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