Sam Lowes (ELF Marc VDS Racing Team) stunned at the TT Circuit Assen in the Tissot Superpole session as he claimed a maiden pole position by obliterating the lap record for the MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship. However, it turned into a disappointing race for the #14 who was taken out of the race by Alvaro Bautista (Aruba.it Racing - Ducati) just before the halfway mark of Race 1, ending what had been a promising start for Lowes.

MAIDEN POLE POSITION: delight for the #14

Assen was the venue for Lowes’ best result in WorldSBK when he claimed sixth place in his rookie season, and his pace at the historic Dutch venue was again strong in 2025. He posted a 1’32.596s to secure pole ahead of the top two in the Championship with Nicolo Bulega (Aruba.it Racing - Ducati) in second and Toprak Razgatlioglu (ROKiT BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team) in third, with the #14 0.164s clear of P2 and 0.219s ahead of P3.

He became the 15^th British polesitter in WorldSBK and the 72^nd in the Championship’s history after securing P1 in Superpole, while there was also a bit of family symmetry: seven years ago, in 2018, Alex Lowes (bimota by Kawasaki Racing Team) claimed his maiden WorldSBK pole position while racing for Yamaha. Sam and Alex are the first set of brothers to secure pole in WorldSBK, making it a historic Superpole session in several ways.

On his pole position, the Marc VDS Ducati riders said: “I saw WorldSBK posted a photo of Alex and I both celebrating wins here and Alex looks quite a lot younger I don’t know why!” joked Lowes “I’m really happy because all weekend we have done a good job with the pace. This morning, I wasn’t sure about the front tyre so rather than use the soft tyre like we did in FP3 I chose to use the hard front similar to the race because I wasn’t sure of my performance in the Superpole. After my first run and I made a few mistakes, I said to the guys I think it was possible to do a nice lap with it. When I crossed the line and I saw the 1’32.5s lap I thought ‘this is my maximum’, it was more than I expected so I’m really happy to be back in the momentum, back with the confidence to do laps like that, it’s been 2 or 3 years since I was in Moto2 to be able to feel the confidence to put laps like that in. That’s something I’m super proud of because it hasn’t been the easiest transition to WorldSBK but slowly, I’m getting there and I’m happy about a it.”

DISAPPOINTMENT IN THE RACE: taken out by Bautista

Lowes enjoyed a good start to Race 1 despite losing ground at the start, fighting for the podium positions alongside the likes of Toprak Razgatlioglu (ROKiT BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team), Alvaro Bautista (Aruba.it Racing - Ducati) and Andrea Locatelli (Pata Maxus Yamaha). However, on Lap 7, Bautista tried to make a move on the Brit at Turn 9, losing the front of his Panigale V4 R and taking out the Independent Ducati rider.

It ended a promising start to the race for Lowes, who spoke about the incident: “I knew that Nicolo had more pace than me, even though I had pole I didn’t expect to be fighting for victory, but I thought 3^rd or 4^th was possible with my pace. Yesterday afternoon in my long run I struggled a lot with the front tyre, I chose to use the SC2 in the race, so I knew in the first laps I would miss a bit then come forward but unfortunately, we had the incident with Alvaro where he tried to pass, lost the front and it took me out. It’s like that, but I’ve been racing a long time, I’ve been on both sides of it, it can happen, he didn’t mean to do it, it’s part of the game but its frustrating for me because the fact that I could even be there with the hard front at the beginning, and I saw everyone struggling at the end, maybe I was in a nice position to fight front the podium or at least to be at the front and this is the team’s goal. So, it’s frustrating, but I’m not going to say any words against anyone, we spoke, he apologized, it’s part of the game, he apologized, it’s part of the game and we look to tomorrow in a positive way.”

BAUTISTA EXPLAINS THE CRASH: “I just said to him that I was sorry because I tried to pass him and then I crashed…”

An apologetic Two-time Champion Bautista also gave his view of the crash. He said: “I’m really angry with myself because I threw a race. The performance was good. The start was good, then I started to fight with other riders. I thought I was faster than the group I was fighting, but with a lot of overtakes, I couldn’t find my space in the group. I tried to overtake in all the possible places. In the end, I crashed. I tried to overtake Sam and I crashed. I’m a bit disappointed for him. Some laps before, we were close to touching so it was like race fights. I’m sorry for him and for my team because I think it was possible to fight for second position. This is racing; before fighting for something, you have to finish the race.”

After the crash, the pair were spotted talking in the service road, with Bautista explaining what he said to the Brit: “I just said to him that I was sorry because I tried to pass him and then I crashed. This is a normal thing of the race. Also, he told me, ‘Sorry for the lap before’ because we were close and he was very close to touching me. Fortunately, Sam is a nice guy, and I hope to battle with him again tomorrow.”

Can Lowes bounce back on Sunday? Find out using the WorldSBK VideoPass!