Elf Marc VDS’ Sam Lowes enjoyed a fast start to the AustrianGP weekend after changes made in Friday’s FP2 at Spielberg proved productive for the Moto2 challenger.

Spending much of the day’s two practice sessions as a top three contender, Lowes eventually finished seventh and a fitting 0.22s away from Friday’s fastest time.

With a full weekend at the Red Bull Ring already under his belt and with obvious issues to work on after struggling with chatter throughout last Sunday’s race, the Brit immediately set about experimenting with different geometry settings on his Kalex chassis while assessing Dunlop’s new soft rear tyre alongside.

Consistent pace was reflected in Lowes near-identical lap times across the two sessions, with his morning effort - a 1’29.107 - placing him well inside the promotion zone ahead of Saturday’s final push for Q2 contention.

“It’s no secret that last weekend I felt we were missing something from the bike, and I think our base at this track just wasn’t quite working as we wanted,” Lowes admitted this afternoon.

“The team made some big changes for FP2, and I must thank them because they did a good job and immediately I felt better and more comfortable.

“When you have back-to-back races it is never easy to come up with fresh ideas, but I feel we’ve made a step and I can be more consistent. This afternoon we did some good work on the harder rear tyre and maybe we were missing a little bit, but we weren’t too far away.”