Sam Lowes delivered his fourth consecutive World Supersport victory yesterday on his Yakhnich Yamaha Motorsport YZF-R6 at the Portimao Circuit in Portugal for round six of the 2013 Championship.
Lowes had again made his intentions clear early in the weekend, flying to his fifth pole position start of the season in qualifying, his tenth career pole.
Only two other riders were able to get within a second of the Yamaha‰Ûªs qualifying time and even then second placed rider Kenan Sofuoglu was over half a second away.
The World Supersport race proved to be one of the most exciting of the season, building to an intense four-way battle over the last laps with Lowes initially pitted against Kawasaki's Sofuoglu and Fabien Foret before late comer Pata Honda's Michael van der Mark joined the party to put himself into contention for podium honours.
Lowes, Sofuoglu and Foret would all take turns to lead the race until the last lap, Lowes making a race-winning pass on Foret into turn ten and holding it to the line for his fourth win of the year on the Yamaha R6.
The victory strengthens the young British rider‰Ûªs lead in the Championship standings, bringing the points tally to 120, a clear 39 ahead of closest rival Sofuoglu. The Championship now heads to Imola in Italy for round seven on 30th June.
‰ÛÏThis weekend I found a really nice feeling with the bike and had a really good pace." Lowes stated. "In the race I struggled a bit with the front feeling but felt good and the bike worked good.
"When I got to the front I made good pace but not enough to pull away. We ended up in a nice battle and hope everyone at home could enjoy it. I‰Ûªm really happy to get that win.
"The next race in Imola Fabien has won the last two years and I‰Ûªve been second so I hope we can change that this time. This weekend and this race has been great, really good fun and I‰Ûªm looking forward to the next one.
"I love racing bikes and I love winning so I‰Ûªm going to keep trying my best, do the best job I can every race I‰Ûªd like to thank the team and Yamaha who gave me a great bike again to race with," he concluded.
