The opening day of the Phillip Island WorldSBK test was a positive one for Sam Lowes, despite two setbacks.

Lowes suffered both a technical problem and a crash on the opening day of the WorldSBK test. 

The crash, which happened at turn four, was of little concern to Lowes, although he seemed less certain about the cause of his stoppage.

“We had a problem with the bike, the bike stopped on-track, so we had to switch to the spare bike; the team will check and see what happened,” Lowes said of the technical issue.

“It’s a new bike, so these things can happen. The team will have to check tonight and see for tomorrow.”

Explaining the turn four crash, Lowes added: “A little bit deep, a little bit wide in the corner, really slow. 

“I was trying the harder front tyre – [the crash was] not for this reason, but just a little bit deep, brake released and crashed. 

“I picked it up and rode it back, I think the team let me off with only half a crash because there was no damage to the bike and no issues. 

“It can happen there; if you’re going to have one in Phillip Island it’s the best corner to do it on.”

Between technical issues and crashes, Lowes was able to use the first day of the Phillip Island test to begin understanding the heavily updated Panigale V4 R for 2026, having been unable to develop a base understanding of the bike during the two European tests that were hit by rain.

One result of the bad weather in Europe is that Lowes is still adjusting his rider triangle, adjusting footpeg and gear lever position on Monday.

“The first thing was to get comfortable on the bike,” said Lowes. “Still we need to adapt a little bit tonight – the bike is new, the position is different, so we’re still working on a few things with the footrest position, the gear lever position.”

He added: “Today, myself, the team, the bike – we needed time to get up to speed, so it was more about just getting up to speed. It was only really the last two exits that my comments felt good, I understood what was going on, I could give the guys feedback. 

“The first 50 laps was just getting up to speed, feeling good on the bike, Phillip Island. 

“2026 we’ve not done a lot, so it was not real productive in a development, settings way, but it was really good for me to get out and I feel like tomorrow we can hit the ground running and start the proper work.”

Looking to day two, Lowes is looking to find a couple of things from the setting of his Ducati.

“We basically just copy and pasted last year’s setting into the new bike and it’s working pretty good, but it’s impossible that that’s the 100 per cent best way considering this is quite a lot different,” he said.

“So, we need to adapt a bit. I really want to work on the front feeling, a bit of agility. I feel the bike’s real stable but I’m missing some turning in some corners and this is affecting my exit.

“On a race weekend, to be able to get the bike turning and pick up to not where the tyre will be important. 

“So, now is more about the setting of the bike, bike balance a little bit, and we can try some things to try and get a bit more grip and work in normal race settings.”