WSS Monza: Cool Lowes stays calm in the chaos

Sam Lowes has moved to the head of the World Supersport Championship standings after overcoming three red flags, one crash, a wrist injury and an intense four-way battle to claim a potentially critical victory at Monza.

A chaotic day for the World Supersport contingent, three red flags - including one prompted by Lowes, Florian Marino, Kenan Sofuoglu and Lorenzo Zanetti when they slipped on oil at the Roggia chicane - would create a delay that wouldn't see them finish their race until gone 16.00GMT.

However, Lowes, who had qualified on pole position, always stood to benefit after Fabien Foret and Michael van der Mark - first and second overall coming into the round - were unable to take the restart due to injuries sustained in one of the earlier stoppages.

Once the fourth start was underway, Lowes manoeuvred himself into the lead battle, though it was evident that his Yamaha R6 didn't have the top speed to prevent his Kawasaki and Honda rivals passing him on the straight.

Nonetheless, Lowes would repeatedly make it count in the corners and when key rival Kenan Sofuoglu slid off track in front of him, the Briton had a perfect opportunity to take full advantage.

Even so, he had to work very hard against Marino, Zanetti and Riccardo Russo, the trio refusing to let Lowes escape as they each took turns in the lead during the latter stages of the race.

The critical moment for Lowes would come on the penultimate lap when, having been overtaken by all three riders coming into the first corner, he would out-brake each of them again into the next chicane. Though Zanetti and Marino would come back at him on the final lap, Lowes kept his cool to hold on to the chequered flag to score the maximum 25 points.

"It was a bit different to a normal race day. In the previous starts I was lucky to not get into too much trouble. That race was quite difficult for me, and a very good battle.

"Thank you very much to my team and to Yamaha who have given me a fantastic bike all season. We'll see everyone at my home race in Donington and hopefully we can do the same again!"

Lowes moves to the top of the table now, 16 points ahead of Foret, 21 points in front of van der Mark and 25 clear of Sofuoglu.