Sam Lowes heads to Misano Adriatico after a disappointing end to a confident Moto2 weekend with his Elf Marc VDS Kalex at Aragon.

With family connections in the region, the San Marino GP feels like a second home race to the Brit and after some stellar performances there in 2020 - where he rode from a pitlane start to eighth overall, followed by a podium, in third for the second of the double headers - he is confident of more of the same this weekend.

“Yeah it’s a track that I like,” Lowes explained from the Rimini paddock on Thursday. “Obviously coming from last race, which was such a good weekend and a battling weekend where we were strong, to have that crash in the race after such a good run of races, sort of building back up was a bit of a bummer.

“The race in MotorLand Aragon didn’t have the outcome we wanted but there are still a lot of good points from the weekend to reflect on. I took pole position and was fighting to win the race. There was a big gap from me and Raul Fernandez to the rest and that is a positive.

“So I’m coming here with good feelings to try and put that behind me. I’m excited to be back on track quickly this weekend in Misano. It is like a second home race for me because I spend a lot of time in Italy with my family. My daughter was born close to Misano, so it’s a special race for me.

“We managed to finish in the top 10 last year, despite having to start from pit lane, and then I was on the podium in the second race. It’s one of my favourite tracks with a great atmosphere and hopefully I can build on some of the good parts of last weekend to battling at the front again.

“The first weekend last year, we had the hard rear tyre which is what we’ve actually got again for this weekend so I felt good then, and had a nice battle through the race. Is definitely a track that I know we can overtake on, given the fact that we came from pitlane to eighth! It normally suits my style, definitely the second part of the track, and from the bike and the tyres, there is not a massive difference from towards that part of last year to now. We’re not massively different so hopefully should get a nice feeling from the first day and go from there.

“I’m really, really excited actually,” the now 31-year-old said of Dunlop’s tyre allocation for the coming race - with three front options now in play.

“It’s good for them to bring that. The soft option I probably won’t use at this track, for me it’s a bit difficult to stop the bike with the soft one and especially sector one here, it’s very important to get the bike stopped. That’s not a bad thing for me because I’ll been working with the hardest one, which I always use, and this new number two which I’m yet to try. It’s very good that they’ve brought that, it’s a similar character to the hard one, just with a bit softer rubber on the edge so it’s nice of Dunlop to bring something different. I guess, obviously as we’re seeing, there’s some riders that can use the soft, some more on the hard, and it’s nice for them to bring something different so that everyone can have, or at least try, to have a bit more information and get what they need.

“The rear tyre is very stable, we’ve got quite a high quantity of the number two rear this weekend so there’s nothing to focus on there, so it will all be on the front and I’m looking forward to try it. Nice job by Dunlop and let’s see how it is.”

It was announced on Tuesday - neatly in combination with his birthday - that Lowes would be staying on at Marc VDS for the 2022 season. A decision that came easily to the Brit who feels firmly at home after two years with the Moto2 stalwart.

“Obviously really happy to be staying for another year,” he explained. “Of course, like every rider you want to improve, you want to fight for the championship and this year it’s not quite gone to plan, but we’ve still been fast, still had race wins, podiums and been at the front. I think when you’re a rider, that’s what you enjoy to do and in this team obviously I have absolutely everything I need to do that again in 2022.

“I actually signed quite a long time ago, so it was just waiting for the announcement. It was a no brainer, I signed even before the summer break, so for me the announcement was mega, but it was something that I already knew for a while.

“I’m happy with the team, keeping the same crew, same crew chief and everything, just trying to use that, as we’ve seen over the years, the consistency and staying with the same team to try and build up, and get stronger every year, hopefully.”