Sam Lowes crashes out at Le Mans

Sam Lowes and Elf Marc VDS Racing teammate Augusto Fernandez both crashed out of promising positions in the early laps at Le Mans after showing podium potential in tricky conditions.

After heavy rain through the morning, the 2.6-mile Le Mans Bugatti Circuit was soaking wet for Sunday’s warm-up sessions, but dried sufficiently to give riders a clear tyre choice ahead of the 25-lap Moto2 race.

All the field ran slick tyres on a track with numerous wet patches, providing a real challenge for the field.

Both Fernandez and Lincoln's Lowes unfortunately crashed out when fighting for the podium places.

Thirty-year-old Lowes enjoyed a solid start and held position in the opening laps from 10th place on the grid and then upped his pace, posting a personal best time on lap three.

But Lowes suffered a fall on the fourth lap of the race when attempting to overtake Xavi Vierge for seventh at turn eight.

The Brit crashed when losing the front and was unable to restart.

The result means Lowes drops a place to fourth in the world championship with 66 points, 23 behind leader Remy Gardner.

“I’ll take the positives to come out stronger in Mugello,” he said.

“I’m really disappointed. I want to say sorry to the team and to Vierge for the accident.

"I was passing him, I felt OK and that the move was possible.

"Another rider was wide ahead of us so that meant there was no margin to go wide when overtaking.

"This might have made me squeeze the brake a little more so I lost the front and then my bike took him down.

"I’m sorry for that and to my team as we threw away a great opportunity with our speed.

"But I’ll take the positives to come out stronger in Mugello. It’s nice we go back there after missing it last season.

"It’s a track that we all enjoy and love to ride. I can’t wait to get there and put this race behind me.”