Sam Lowes completed his final race of 2021 seventh, despite a Friday crash putting his Valencia GP in jeopardy.

The Elf Marc VDS rider suffered a heavy crash in the opening minutes of Friday morning with the rest of the weekend in some doubt after injuring his right leg. His trademark grit saw the Brit dig deep once again, at a track he now openly admits is his nemesis, launching from 10th on the grid. Twice.

A red flag in the opening action cut the 25-lap race down to 16, with Lowes initially dropping out of the top 10 on lap two. Fighting back once more, he regained his composure and positions, crossing the line seventh, five seconds behind the leader, for his 12th top seven finish of the season. Consolidating fourth in the Moto2 Championship with a total of 190 points.

“Honestly, it wasn’t too bad,” Lowes said on Sunday. “Obviously with the red flags the race was shorter, which probably didn’t play into my hands. The pace was quite strong for everybody and I had qualified further back. I knew the first three or four laps I was struggling a bit more but then after I dropped back a bit it was a real fun race. I was catching guys ahead and passing them.

“I’m relatively happy. I was really compromised after the crash in FP1. I felt a bit sore all weekend at a track which is my nemesis now. My target will be to come back here and get a good result in the future!

“The team did a great job with the bike, it was working well. I’m really happy to finish the race with a solid performance after the injury. It continued our nice end to the year. It gives us something to build on as we go into the winter to improve our weak points so we’re ready for 2022!”