Bennetts Suzuki’s Sylvain Guintoli has taken a new setup direction with the new GSX-R1000R after more testing at his team’s home Mallory Park circuit saw him set some increasingly fast lap times.

The Frenchman worked specifically on engine and rear suspension in order to get the plentiful, available power to the tarmac and believes he is in good shape foe the coming MCE British Superbike round at Brands, which starts with an official test this afternoon.

"It was a very interesting test this week, and we made a big step with the bike and our performance, but also with our understanding. The team has spent lots of time going over the data from Donington. We've gone in a different direction now, and made lots of progress and we set some fast times,” said Guintoli.

“We've done a lot of work with the electronics, as we needed to better understand how the bike works with them. The engine makes a lot of power as standard, so in Superbike spec it's really strong, and we needed to manage it better. We've also worked on rear suspension setup, and made some big progress.

“I’ve got some fond memories of Brands Hatch, I was on pole and won my first race with Suzuki in BSB in 2009. It's an interesting circuit and it's another one I know. But it's going to be really competitive. We saw at Donington how competitive it was to be in the top 10, so around Brands Hatch it's going to be really close.

“The extra test today will help us more, and we're planning on back-to-back testing some more components. We'll then make a call on which way we go for the races."