The Pata Yamaha Official WorldSBK Team got off to a positive start on Friday at Round 7 of the 2018 Motul FIM Superbike World Championship in Brno despite a number of red flags and a wet FP1. Alex Lowes showed good pace throughout the day and ended up fifth on the combined timesheets after FP3 with a 1:59.917, 0.514s off the top. There was hardly anything to separate him from his teammate Michael van der Mark, who was just 0.061s further back in seventh after setting a 1:59.978 to finish Friday in seventh, with both riders securing their places automatically in Saturday's SP2.