Rizla Suzuki’s Tom Sykes and Atsushi Watanabe got their team’s home round off to a good start today during free practice for the second round of the Bennetts British Superbike Championship at Thruxton in Hampshire, finishing in fifth and 19th places respectively.
Sykes improved his lap times by 0.8secs between free practice one and two, while his team-mate Watanabe knocked an impressive 1.4secs off his time as he got to grips with the fastest track on the calendar
“We are just refining my Rizla Suzuki’s set-up now,” explained a confident Sykes. “We have a good direction to go in, however, there are two - three corners where I’m not so strong. Once we get to the bottom of that I will be able to push harder. I’m fast in the first sector so we need to concentrate on the second sector, we will find the cure and be up there for sure.”
The high speed 2.4 mile track is a new challenge for two times Japanese Superbike Champion Watanabe. He said: “I am still learning, circuit is very, very fast but lay-out is easy. It has different feeling to Brands Hatch and is very bumpy. My lap time improve but my result not improve, I’m not so happy with this. I get my fastest lap early in the session, then I try new tyre and think I should go faster but I didn’t improve. It is very wide and fast track, there are lots of lines, I need to find Atsushi line.”
Team Manager Jack Valentine was happy with how free practice went. He said: “We were working on tyre duration and we have further improvements to make so I know we can step up. I’m pleased with how Atsushi has dropped his times as he is in at the deep end again learning a new circuit. I’ve looked at our lap times we are definitely in contention with the front runners and our Rizla Suzukis are up there on top speed too. I’m looking forward to tomorrow; I just hope it stays dry for qualifying. We have had two good sessions today and I know we have a good race set-up I’m confident we will improve.”
The fastest time was set by Honda’s Cal Crutchlow with a time of 1min15.071secs. Third free practice takes place tomorrow at 1025 followed by one 50-minute qualifying session at 1415. The Superbike racing starts at 1300 on Sunday, 20th April, and will be shown live on Eurosport from 1230, with a highlights programme broadcast on Channel 4 at 0110 on Tuesday 22nd April.
Practice Times:1: Cal Crutchlow (Honda) 1:15.071
2: Leon Haslam (Honda) +0.581
3: Karl Harris (Yamaha) +0.721
4: Shane Byrne (Ducati) +0.899
5: TOM SYKES RIZLA SUZUKI +1.0406: Michael Rutter (Ducati) +1.081
7: Stuart Easton (Kawasaki) +1.619
8: Simon Andrews (Yamaha) +1.900
9: John Laverty C (Ducati) +2.112
10: Michael Laverty (Suzuki) +2.132
19: ATSUSHI WATANABE RIZLA SUZUKI +3.172
