Brands Hatch British Superbikes: Atsushi Watanabe looks for corner exit breakthrough

Having finished the first free practice session in a lowly 20th, Rizla Suzuki’s Atsushi Watanabe is looking to rid the problems and climb up towards the sharp end of the grid.
 
MCN spoke to Watanabe’s crew chief, Lez Pearson, on what the team plan to do to rectify the problems the two-time Japanese Superbike Champion has been having today.
 
“We need to help Atsushi with the rear-end and a different direction on corner exit.

“We need Atsushi to focus on picking the bike up earlier and firing out of the corner earlier, which is where he’s losing most of his time”.
 
Watanabe was expected to go well at Silverstone at the previous round due to the similar nature of the circuit to what Atsushi is used to riding in Japan.

But it wasn’t to be as Watanabe complained of engine braking problems.
 
“We had problems with engine braking at Silverstone, but now we’re following a similar strategy to Tom Sykes and Atsushi seemed a lot happier after the first free practice session,” added Pearson.