2015 MCE British Superbike champion Josh Brookes will start the opening race at Assen on Sunday from the fourth row, and for the Australian being 11th on the grid is ‘absolutely not good enough’.
The qualifying session was held in wet conditions, and Brookes started the first session strongly and comfortably made his way into Q2. But then the Bringelly rider was blighted by an electrical issue and the front wheel speed sensor stopped working.
The Anvil Hire TAG Yamaha rider could not push as hard as he wanted with the issues that he had on-board the R1, and he didn’t use the new rear compound wet Pirelli tyre as his crew did not have time to test it properly. Now his team will be working this evening to make improvements to the R1 with Brookes aiming for race wins tomorrow.
“We had a front wheel speed sensor not work, we’ve had this issue a few times in the wet, so that is what let us down,” said Brookes.
“We didn’t use the new rear compound, nobody is using it, we’ve not had time to test it properly and the few people that have used it haven’t gone any better. I did try it this morning but the track was dry so there’s no comparison.
“Starting 11th is not good enough, it’s absolutely not good enough so we need to get the bike right tonight and do what we can tomorrow, but the plan is always to win.”
