Sam Lowes kicked off his title-challenging year with a strong performance in the opening two days of Qatar’s Moto2 test.

Strong winds may have dominated Saturday’s testing but conditions failed to dent lap times as Lowes concentrated on improving his race pace rather than pursuing a fast lap for the majority of the three hours on track.

Completing a short run of nine laps during the second session, Lowes reduced his pace to a 2:00.884, less than 0.2s away from the fastest so far before returning to action in determined form for the final outing.

Wasting no time in asserting his authority, the Brit soared to the top in the opening minutes of the evening session, his 1:59.211, set on his fifth lap, quickly dominating the timesheets as the clock counted down before continuing his work as he racked up 30 laps.

His time, over 0.3s faster than his best pace set on the opening day, eventually placed the Marc VDS rider ninth in the combined standings after an off on new rubber curtailed his hot-lap attempt in the closing minutes.

“Today was another good day and I’m really happy with the step we made compared to yesterday” a pragmatic Lowes said of his second day in Qatar. “The team did a great job giving me the same feeling that I had on the bike at the end of last year, when I was really strong.

“I was very fast on used tyres and the final result could have been better, but unfortunately I crashed when I went out on a new set of tyres. That prevented me from showing my true potential but I’m excited for tomorrow with the pace I’ve already shown.”

Scorching hot temperatures exceeding 30 degrees had meant it was a physically demanding start to Friday’s pre-season showdown as Lowes completed his initial 27 laps at the Doha track.

Experimenting with front and rear suspension modifications, the 30-year-old had impressed again in the evening session to end Friday with a best pace of 1’59.574 to finish fourth overall.

“A good start even though I had a small crash when I touched a dirty part of the track” said Lowes. “It was not an ideal start and cost me a bit of time on track, but I felt good. We tried a few things with settings that were positive and negative but I felt really good on the bike and I was very consistent. We can still improve, and I will have a look at a different direction but it was a solid day, and we have something to build on” explained the Brit.

“It’s been a nice winter at home with my family, with my daughter. Training has gone really well, I’ve worked on a few areas of my fitness to get better, as all us riders do, and I’m definitely ready to get the ball rolling and start the season.

“For me, last year was a very big season in my career because I came back from some not so good years to have a really nice solid season and something that I can build on in 2021.

“The key for me is to continue the form of last year, to start the season really strong, and just to be consistent, to be strong like I was last year in every situation, every circuit and polish the details.

“It’s really nice for me mentally to be working on the small details, because I feel like the big thing that I was missing I got back last year, so I now have that and now I can just work on the small details to polish everything up to make another step in 21.

Having learnt a lot over recent years, Lowes believes the main element now is “to be a bit more smart in certain sessions and not push when I don’t need to, basically just make a step on managing the race weekends a little bit better.

“I would say I feel the best I’ve been in my whole career.

“I’ve had some good seasons in the past in Moto2 and I had a good season last year. I feel like I have improved my weak points, I feel like I’ve now highlighted the areas which I still need to improve, but I know what they are and I’m working on them and this is my strong point - that I know my good points, and I know my bad points and I’m not afraid to say and work on it, so I feel good.

“I feel really, really confident. I feel like the biggest thing is I’m enjoying the team, I’m enjoying my bike, I’m enjoying being on track, and when it’s like this it’s obviously a really, really nice job to have.

“The day that you expect things to stay the same is bad in sport. There’s going to be some guys coming up that will be really, really fast, there’ll be some rookies in 2020 that are always better the second year, in 21, and there’ll be the guys that are always there. In Moto2 there are so many people that can be fast. A lot depends on when you get a good result, how you can manage that, the next result, the next result. There’s probably any of 10 riders that if they got on a good wave, a good run of results, can fight for the championship so yeah, we have to stay on our toes. I have to keep improving but for sure I’m going to be there fighting.

“My goal for 2021 is to become world champion, to improve on last year, polish the details and get the championship.”