Bridewell fastest on day 2 at Cartagena

Tommy Bridewell has cemented his position as a 2014 MCE British Superbike championship contender, setting a blisteringly fast lap right at the end of day two of pre-season testing at Cartagena in Spain today.

The Wiltshire rider was able to take advantage of a clear piece of track in the closing stages of the day’s final session to finish the day a second faster than new Milwaukee Yamaha teammate Josh Brookes.

Brookes and Bridewell will finish their test at Cartagena a day early, before a rest day and then onto a second Spanish test at the Alcaraz circuit, with Bridewell citing fading concentration levels with the change venue.

Speaking at the end of the day, he said: “Overall it has been really good, yesterday after having five months off the bike it was just me sorting myself out, getting my lines in and I feel like we achieved a lot better lap time than we would have expected so that was good. Today was a bit more productive, we did a lot more work with the bike and we concentrated on some new linkages that we have got.”

“In the final session we made another change and ran a further link and did a race distance on a new tyre, the Pirelli 17 inch SC0, the tyres worked well and we got some feedback which is what we wanted to see with the Yamaha. We made some more changes, softened the front and at the end I did a 1:34.3 lap and to be honest I am very happy with that. Every session we went faster and today I had been looking for a stronger improvement and we found it. I feel really comfortable on the bike, it is working amazing; Pete (Jennings) and the Milwaukee team are working well, and I am enjoying it which is producing the lap times.”

Tommy Bridewell (Milwaukee Yamaha) 1:34.3
Josh Brookes (Milwaukee Yamaha) 1:35.1
John Hopkins (Tyco Suzuki) 1:35.5
Josh Waters (Tyco Suzuki) 1:35.5
Martin Jessopp (Riders Motorcycles BMW) 1:35.6
Ian Hutchinson (FFX Yamaha) 1:35.7
Jakub Smrz (Millsport Ducati) 1:35.8

Please note: no official timing is available and all times provided by teams.