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Silverstone BSB: 'I laid everything on the line' - Brookes

Milwaukee Yamaha’s Josh Brookes gave it everything in the final MCE British Superbike qualifying session at Silverstone, and it showed as he was able to set the fastest ever Superbike lap around the track in Q3 this afternoon.

A superb 2’03.984 was more than good enough to place his R1 on the number one spot on the starting grid, and he was the only rider to reach the 2’03’s  to bag his fifth qualifying pole position of the season.

The current championship leader has an advantage over fellow Showdown riders as he was the only title fighter to make it on to the front row. Rivals, JG Speedfit Kawasaki’s James Ellison will start race-one from P4 with Laverty and Linfoot rounding up row three.

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PBM Kawasaki’s Shane Byrne, who is second in the overall Championship standings heads up row four, giving Brookes an edge for the opening race. But Brookes is not thinking about the other Showdown riders and is fully focused on his own strategy and race ambitions.

“I kind of changed my character a bit during qualifying as normally I will do two, three or four laps and ride to the chequered flag, but in Q2 I did a really nice lap and I felt there wasn’t a lot more I could achieve and I thought that it would be enough to get into the final qualifying. I wanted to leave that good thought in my head going into the last run,” said Brookes at the track.

“When I went out in Q3, on our dash when you do a personal best lap a light comes on and when you drop below your personal best the light goes out, and my first flying lap I went into the first turn and I made a mistake and I didn’t get the bike pulled up quick enough and I rolled the throttle and immediately the light went out on the dash and I was devastated because it meant another full lap of wear on the tyre.

“But I kept the gas on and I rolled really fast into Maggots and Becketts and the light came back on so whatever I lost I made back and that meant game on again and I kept everything as good as I could and raced right to the finish. I saw ‘03.9 on the dash and I thought to myself could I go for another lap? Which was my normal strategy, and I thought if someone could beat that lap then they deserve it because I laid everything fairly well on the line on that lap. I didn’t really believe I could make a better lap without another fresh pair of tyres so I just pulled off and rode it into the pits.

“The team have done a really good job with the bike to give me that confidence and I looked at my pit board and saw a 0.2 and I thought who the hell is that close to me, as I was expecting to see a bigger gap, and it was Hopper. He was the previous track record holder - and it shows he’s feeling good on his bike.

“I am just pleased to be at Silverstone and I enjoy it, but it is just a shame there is not more mounds for people to stand on to get a better view. It is a great track for riders, but for the viewing public it is probably not the most exciting, being so far from the action. I am looking forward to the races tomorrow and this has given us more confidence.

“I am still focusing on my own situation as you would in rounds two, three or four -when you are not thinking about the Championship and just working on your bike and tyre conservation. I am trying to maintain that same focus - if you do the same thing you should be able to achieve the same results. This year I kept the same preparations and kept the same results on track and I don’t want to change what works.”

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