Sam Lowes started his 2021 campaign at the top of the Moto2 time sheets after a strong but relaxed first day at Qatar.

Varying temperatures and track conditions thanks to the contrasting mid-afternoon and late evening schedule gave Lowes a balancing job as he navigated the Losail international Circuit for the opening day’s practices but one he successfully handled. Completing both 40-minute sessions with the fastest time overall, the Brit heads into Saturday pleased with the work done so far.

Having topped the times at the test last weekend, Lowes started the first race weekend of the year utilising his base setting from preseason and was immediately fast, finishing second in FP1 before improving on his personal best time by 1.362s, to top FP2 with a 1’58.959.

“It’s nice to finally start the season after all the testing and it’s nice to start in a relaxed way, the same as the test,” Lowes commented, at the end of Friday’s session. “It was a really positive first day for us. We tried something in the front to give me a bit more stability. The track was a little bit different to the test so we’re not 100 per cent sure, but for me it felt a little bit better.”

Using the evening session to analyse long-run pace - thanks to the close conditions relative to Sunday’s contest - his nine-lap sequence in the first half of FP2 demonstrated the Marc VDS rider’s confident consistency, remaining in the low 1’59s or high 1’58s for seven of the nine attempts.

“My pace compared to the test was a little slower,” the 30-year-old continued “but compared to the other guys it was stronger. This is the important schedule of the weekend. FP1 and FP3 are during the day time but FP2 is the main one. We kept the tyre, did the run and the pace is not so far.

“We can be positive and happy about the first day and look forward to tomorrow and the first qualifying session of the year.”