Sam Lowes crashed his Elf Marc VDS out of podium contention at the Spanish Grand Prix after succumbing to the Jerez Circuit at turn eight.

Despite a poor start, which dropped him to eighth from the front row, Lowes was quickly back and fighting in the leading group as the 23-lap unfolded in southern Spain.

“When I set off on the warm-up lap, I made a really bad start,” Lowes explained after the flag. “Then I made a bad start in the race. At turn one I nearly hit some people so on the first lap I was quite far behind but after that I felt under control.

“I was coming through and passing the guys. You really enjoy a race like that because you’re coming forward and have the pace. At that point it was really fun to be involved in the leading group.”

Setting the fastest lap of the race - a 1’41.757 - during his comeback, the Brit was firmly in the mix at the front and demonstrating the session topping pace he’d harnessed throughout the weekend as he circulated in fourth before the unexpected spill.

“I need to see what happened with the crash, I don’t really know,” Lowes admitted. “I think I lost the front on the patches and then when I touched the throttle to get out of the corner, it maybe just offset the bike a bit and we crashed.

“It’s a shame. It’s my first mistake of the weekend. We just need things to go my way and we’ll see what happens.”