Samsung Honda’s Alex Lowes has not had a bad start to the MCE British Superbike weekend. The Lincolnshire rider started off the weekend in a positive fashion and topped the opening free practice timesheets.

But in the second free practice outing he was unable to match the pace of title rival, Rapid Solicitors Kawasaki’s Shane Byrne and had to settle for a respectable provisional second spot on the grid.

The rider is using a completely different setup from when he was last at the track a few months ago, and the changes appeared to have worked, leaving the rider feeling ‘pretty good’ with his lap times today.

“Overall today has not been too bad. We are riding with a totally different setup from when I was here last time, and it appeared to be working, you only have to look at the times to see that,” said Lowes, at the track.

“I feel pretty good as we are second oN the leader board and we are there or there a bouts, but it is good to be up there so early into the weekend.”