Sam Lowes has officially gotten his new endeavour competing in the WorldSBK Championship underway after getting a first taste of his new Marc VDS Racing-run Ducati Panigale V4 R during a test session in Jerez.

The British rider will make his much anticipated WorldSBK debut in 2024 after a decade spent racing in the Grand Prix World Championship.

Joining twin brother Alex Lowes in the series production-based series, Lowes arrives in WorldSBK with the same Marc VDS Racing team he competed with in Moto2 for the past four seasons.

The Belgian outfit joins Barni Spark Racing, Team Go Eleven and Motocorsa Racing in representing Ducati at a satellite level, pitching Lowes directly against respective riders Danilo Petrucci, Andrea Iannone and Michael Ruben Rinaldi next season.

Getting his first taste of the V4 machine in a test at Jerez, he is joined on track by Toprak Razgatlioglu, who along with team-mate Michael van der Mark, as the Turk attempts to get up to speed on his new ROKiT BMW M 1000 RR.

Lowes' WorldSBK debut in 2024 comes just over ten years on from him clinching the 2013 WorldSSP Championship title on the Yakhnich Motorsport Yamaha R6, the same year brother Alex won the British Superbike Championship.

While Alex would go on to graduate to WorldSBK in 2014, Sam switched to the Moto2 World Championship where he would remain until this season, excusing his single year in MotoGP with Aprilia Gresini Racing.

One of the longest-serving and most successful riders to have competed in the Moto2 era, in 154 starts Lowes won ten races, achieved 26 podiums and started from pole position on 20 occasions. His strongest campaign came in 2020 with a run to third in the overall standings.