Alex Lowes was the unexpected pace setter come the end of play for day one of the 2024 WorldSBK Championship opening round at Phillip Island.

The Kawasaki Racing Team rider upstaged his better fancied rivals on a fairly unusual leaderboard during second free practice on a day when intermittent drizzle and high winds put a dampener on the some of the wilder predictions about lap times on the newly resurfaced Australian circuit.

Even so, Lowes was still capable of setting a new lap record - beating the time set by Andrea Locatelli during FP1 - with a 1m 29.042secs, even if it remained short of the 1m 28srcs laps being set during testing earlier in the week in hotter conditions.

Regardless of the times themselves, Lowes' presence at the head of the timesheets was a continuation of strong pace shown on Tuesday and during FP1, the Briton looking in fine fettle around the circuit where he achieved his single win as a Kawasaki rider back in 2020.

On a day when the dominant trio of recent seasons - Alvaro Bautista, Toprak Razgatlioglu and Jonathan Rea - appeared to struggle in the changeable conditions, it was left to some different names to hold the overnight advantage heading into Saturday's Superpole and opening race.

Rookie Nicolo Bulega shrugged off the tricky weather to come in less than a tenth off Lowes in second place, while Locatelli - despite only being 11th fastest in FP2 - had his session-topping FP1 effort to thank for his third place on the combined leaderboard.

Danilo Petrucci made stealthily impressive progress in FP2 to turn in the fourth fastest time, while Michael van der Mark broke out of Razgatlioglu's shadow on his ROKiT BMW to complete the top five.

Having shadowed his brother Alex with third best in FP1, Sam Lowes consolidated his promising start to the year with the sixth fastest time despite a scary moment in FP2 when he got out of shape coming into Turn 2 and speared across the damp grass and gravel. Nevertheless, the ex-Moto2 rider kept it upright and stopped just in time before the barriers.

Andrea Iannone (Go Eleven) and Michael Ruben Rinaldi (Motocorsa) made it four satellite Ducati riders inside the top eight in seventh and eighth respectively, ahead of Remy Gardner and a curiously off-kilter Razgatlioglu.

The Turk made several attempts at a fast lap but couldn't seem to find the same immediate turn of pace that has defined in pre-season in the cooler conditions.

Still, he fared better than a disgruntled Bautista, the defending champion seen repeatedly shaking his head as he failed to find his groove on the Aruba.it Ducati, down in 12th.

Similarly, Jonathan Rea missed a large portion of FP2 before only going quick enough for 16th place when he did head out on track aboard the Pata PROMETEON Yamaha.

Indeed, beyond the Lowes' twins, it was an inauspicious first day back at 'school' for the British contingent with Scott Redding's promising pace quelled by technical issues on his BMW with 15mins of the session remaining, leaving him 18th. Countrymen Brad Ray (Motoxracing Yamaha) and Tarran Mackenzie (MIE Honda) completed their days in a respective 17th and 22nd.

2024 WorldSBK Phillip Island | Free Practice 2 Results [Combined]

Friday | Conditions - Damp start-to-dry

Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit | Lap Records - WorldSBK

2024 WorldSBK Phillip Island Schedule & Programme