Tom Sykes and Atsushi Watanabe used today’s additional free practice time, at the rescheduled Brands Hatch GP round, to work on fine tuning their Rizla Suzuki's giving them a competitive set-up ahead of tomorrow’s Bennetts British Superbike Championship double header.
Soaring temperatures at the 2.3 mile Kent circuit allowed Rizla Suzuki’s racers to make the most of the two 30-minute free practice sessions. Sykes finished in fifth place, steadily working through changes on both his Rizla Suzuki race bikes. Watanabe came home in 18th on his return to the challenging track.
Round one, at the Brands Hatch GP circuit, which was originally scheduled for Sunday 6th April will take place tomorrow on Sunday 11th May. The grid was set from the positions achieved at that event, however both Rizla Suzuki riders have moved up one position on the grid due to the injured Karl Harris withdrawing from the event, so Sykes will start from fourth place and Watanabe will line up in eighth.
Race one will commence on Sunday 11th May at 13:15 with race two at 16:20; Eurosport 2 will broadcast live from 13:00-14:30 and from 15:15-17:00.
Tom: “We worked on different settings on both my Rizla Suzukis during free practice one, and then married the best bits from each bike into one for the second session. Overall I’m pleased with the out-come. My Rizla Suzuki technicians have some changes to make before warm-up tomorrow which will improve my race set-up even further. Brands Hatch is a tough circuit and these changes will allow me to push the front end as hard as I need to here.”
Atsu: “I know Brands Hatch now, I need to fine tune my Rizla Suzuki and fine tune Atsu. The high temperatures have made it more difficult to find grip, but my Rizla Suzuki technicians have some changes for warm-up tomorrow. I’m looking forward to racing here at last - it will be a big challenge.”
Jack Valentine Rizla Suzuki Team Manager: “We’ve had two productive sessions on track today. We have already visited Brands Hatch this year, so we have our settings from that event. We also found a good set-up at Oulton Park; we’ve put these together for Tom and with these race settings I feel very positive for tomorrow. We have a few very small changes to make tonight which we will run in morning warm-up.
“Atsu also worked on both his machines today. At the moment he needs a little more work on set-up, however his Rizla Suzuki technicians have a direction to go in so we will see an improvement in warm-up.”
Grid positions:1: Shane Byrne (Ducati) 1:25.832
2: Cal Cruthlow (Honda) 1:26.155
3: Leon Haslam (Honda) 1:26.552
4: TOM SYKES (RIZLA SUZUKI) 1:26.6415: Leon Camier (Ducati) 1:26.833
6: Simon Andrews (Yamaha) 1:26.926
7: Michael Rutter (Ducati) 1:26.974
8: ATSUSHI WATANABE (RIZLA SUZUKI) 1:27.8939: Michael Laverty (Suzuki) 1:27.937
10: Billy McConnell (Kawasaki) 1:28.206
