Second fastest Brookes 'out-performed Shakey'

Josh Brookes admitted after the first MCE British Superbike test of the year in the UK that he was dissatisfied to walk away only second fastest to Shane Byrne, finishing some 0.2 seconds off the triple champion but admitting it was partly his own fault.

“I was a bit disappointed to get the final position snatched from me, after leading most of the day, but I wasn’t being very strategic at the end of the day! We made a decision to put in some fresh tyres, and run it to the flag, and I didn’t know Shakey was sitting on my tail out there. But at the end of the day he did a faster lap time than me.”

“I did my best lap time on lap eleven, though, so when we look as a team at where we sit in the big picture, it’s good. We did our very best lap of the day on the last lap of the tyre, so we’ve got race pace, and we’re already not making big changes to the bike; it’s like I’ve already been riding it for a year.”

However, with only five days experience on the Milwaukee Yamaha after three years on the Tyco Suzuki, the Australian says his team have amazed him with the speed to which they’ve allowed him to adapt to the new bike.

“We’ve changed a few things, but only because of how flowing Donington is, and everyone on my side of the garage is happy. It pays to be with a team who’ve got a lot of experience, because they’ve given me the bike in its best package, and we’ve just very slightly tailored it to the sensation I was looking for to chase Shakey. He’s our benchmark, and although we’re slightly slower we may have even out-performed him today.”