After impressive progress shown throughout the opening half of the 2020 Moto2 season, Sam Lowes is confident his returning form places him in the perfect position to fight for wins over the coming races and believes the strong team surrounding him at Marc VDS is a key ingredient to that success.

“I’ve felt quite good since Jerez. The races have been okay, a little mistake in Austria but overall I’ve been competitive every weekend so this has given me a lot of confidence," said Lowes, speaking at the track

"With another podium last time out in Misano, I feel like now I can make a bit of a step this weekend and obviously start seriously thinking about trying to challenge for the first victory of the year.

“I probably couldn’t have said that in Jerez because I wasn't on that level, I didn’t have the results before but now I feel quite good, in all different situations so maybe I can approach the weekend, not differently but obviously with the target of fighting for the win.

“I think even in the first race at Jerez I was lacking a bit of the confidence and feeling, it’s a snowball effect, when things are going bad and you’re not getting the results and you’re missing that bit of feeling, it continues to curve in that way but now it’s been really solid.

“The team have helped me a lot to be more relaxed on the bike and focus on the correct things. From the restart, from the first Jerez to the second and then onto Brno, I’ve just been building the confidence all the time and now I feel in the best position I’ve been in, in a very long time.

It’s so important to feel good in your environment but obviously to have the confidence and the feeling you need, so yeah, it’s been tough, when you lose your confidence but when it all comes back things start to happen a bit easier and it makes you feel good!

Looking ahead to the Barcelona weekend, Lowes explains his comfort with the Kalex puts him in good-stead, with a focus now needed on his starting procedure, thanks to the recent addition of the scooter-style rear brake for this season.

“Honestly, overall we’ve been keeping everything quite similar. We’ve found a really good base setting and now we just move a little around that. This track is a tiny bit different, the grip is quite low, we’ve actually got a softer tyre than we normally have here, which will help. At the minute it’s nothing too major, so we’re just keeping in our base set up. I might change something after FP1 if that’s not working but the plan for now is to go with the base and see where we are.

“My biggest thing now I need to work on, is not my speed on my first lap but my starts. I’m still not amazing there but in the 10-lap race [at Misano] to be able to be quick in those first laps, pass people and get on the podium was a good step because I was actually on the third row for the 10-lapper, so it was a positive result but I need more. I need more in those early laps, in the starts, to be able to make another step forward.  

“It’s just that natural feeling of letting the clutch out that I’ve had all of my career, it’s a bit different now with the higher lever and I’m still missing a little of the feeling to get it right but we can just keep on working. Even in the practices my starts are terrible so it’s not just like I’m doing bad ones in the race, they're bad all weekend so if I can improve something in the sessions then hopefully that can go into the race as well. Just to improve the way I’m doing it, I just need to work a bit harder at it.”