Sam Lowes secured his fourth Moto2 front row start of 2021 for the Marc VDS squad despite navigating Saturday’s tricky qualifying conditions at Mugello.

Thick cloud cover and light rain provided dramatically different conditions for the final qualifying of the afternoon compared to the blistering Italian sunshine of the previous practice sessions. Having already demonstrated his skill and familiarity with the rolling Tuscan layout across the weekend, Lowes emulated his near record-breaking pace of the morning - which saw him better the previous record with just his fourth lap of the day before finishing 0.177s behind his KTM adversaries - to set another 1’50 lap - this time a 1’50.990 - on his way to second place. 

Discussing the rollercoaster day from his position in Parc Ferme, Lowes described Q2 as a “funny session” before elaborating further. 

“The track was still offering a lot of grip, but there were some spots of rain that mentally made it very complicated” he explained. 

“When you get spots of rain on your visor you have to be aware of that, it's always tricky to understand exactly how much it's affecting the track but in the end the grip was quite good so we pushed on. 

“My pace has been strong all weekend and I’m happy to be on the front row. Raul Fernandez has been fast too, so it's nice that we start first and second and it looks like he and I will be having a close battle and can look forward to the race. 

"I feel we’ve done a good job preparing the bike for the race, in those conditions it's easy to get a bad feeling or get caught out a little bit so it’s a real positive to get on the front row again and I’m looking forward to a strong ride tomorrow. It’s always a long race in Mugello but I go into it with a lot of confidence, I’m looking forward to it!”