MotoGP Germany: Lowes ‘confident’ after 18th pole, ‘we need to be in the fight’

Elf Marc VDS’ Sam Lowes claimed his 18th Moto2 pole position at the Sachsenring on Saturday and his first for 2022.

Lowes has been in the leading group across the German weekend as he worked on both one lap speed and race pace with his Kalex machine before setting the dominant lap, just a tenth shy of the outright record, on his sixth of ten revolutions around the 3.7km layout.

After a difficult run of form in recent races, the pole position, at a track he loves but finds challenging, brought confidence for the 31-year-old.

“I’m happy with this weekend because it’s a track that I really enjoy but I struggle to go real fast here,” Lowes admitted after the Parc Fermé celebrations. “I’ve had some nice races but to do that one lap you have to be so smooth and control well, especially the second sector.

“In qualifying we started with the harder tyre and did two laps,” he explained. “I felt I could also go quite fast with this tyre so that gave me some confidence. Then we put the main tyre in and we did a great step. I knew the first flying lap was the one to really push. I did a great lap and was actually surprised with the time. I’m really happy with it!

“We’ve worked really hard for the race pace this weekend and changed the bike a lot. I have to say thank you to the team. We’re in the mix and where we want to be every weekend. The last few races the potential has been quite good, we just haven’t made a good Sunday.

”We’re very satisfied with this result as it’s good to start near the front,” he elaborated. “For five or six laps a lot of people have similar pace, then the end will be more spread out. It will be a tight race between two or three people but I feel like, especially in the second half of the race, we’re in a