Britain’s Sam Lowes ended the opening Moto2 test of 2015 at Valencia second on the combined timesheets with his best from Tuesday as the second and third days were washed out by rain.

The Speed Up rider recorded a best on Tuesday of a 1’35.106, a little over three-tenths behind Johann Zarco and less than a tenth ahead of reigning champion Tito Rabat, on the Estrella Galicia Marc VDS bike.

Thomas Luthi ended fourth on the combined sheets with Xavier Simeon fifth, Alex Rins sixth and Louis Salom seventh, just under a second off the pace. Jonas Folger and Simone Corsi rounded out the top ten.

Reigning Moto3 Champion Alex Marquez was down in 26th place as he got to grips with the Moto2 bike again. His pace was not helped by a previous crash at Almeria.

“At the beginning of my first year in Moto2 I need as much track time as possible, especially as my feeling with the bike wasn’t so good after crashing during a shakedown test in Almeria last week,” said Marquez.

“I need to start enjoying myself on the bike again, because this is when the lap times come, and I need to recover again the good feeling. Unfortunately the weather here at Valencia meant I didn’t get a chance to do that, as I only really had one day on the bike.

“Now we head for three more days of testing at Jerez where, with better weather forecast, we should be able to make up for the lost track time here.”

Valencia Moto2 test combined times