Elf Marc VDS Racing’s Sam Lowes spent his first day at the Circuit of the Americas focused on race pace ahead of Sunday’s Moto2 battle.

While teammate Tony Arbolino showcased the one lap pace their Kalex machine was capable of from second in the overall times, Lowes spent Friday fine-tuning his race pace. His fastest effort, a 2'09.952 set on heavily used tyres, was still enough to maintain his place inside the provisional Q2 entry ahead of Saturday’s FP3 push.

Austin’s revised schedule meant the Moto2 riders were out first on Friday morning with the recently resurfaced track temperatures increasing by 25℃ for FP2. Having used Dunlop’s hard rear tyre option throughout FP1, Lowes found little rear grip. The Brit switched to the soft rear for FP2 and spent the full 40 minutes on the same rubber, working on bike performance over race distance. After setting the 13th fastest time, the 31-year old will work with his team this evening to fine-tune set-up so he is stronger in the track’s first sector.

“Today we worked a lot on race pace,” Lowes explained from the Austin paddock. “We managed to do our best lap of the day on tyres that had done a full race distance. We need to improve a bit in sector one. I’ll look at some videos tonight to improve my riding there, and also the stopping of the bike.

“I feel like we’re stronger than our position shows. I’m looking forward to making a step tonight. The circuit has done a good job with the new track surface. It’s definitely more fun to ride than it was in 2021.

“We’ll analyse some things tonight, make some improvements and aim to fight for a place on the front two rows tomorrow.”