Milwaukee Yamaha’s Josh Brookes put down more laps inside the 2’06’s than any other rider in the MCE British Superbike second free practice session at Silverstone, and was consistently on the pace in both FP1 and FP2.
The R1 rider is the current series leader, but was demoted down to second on the timing-screens when fellow Showdown rider, Tyco BMW’s Michael Laverty set a hot lap to go P1 in FP2.
For Brookes tyre choice is key and his best time of a 2’05.444 was on an SC1. But the Australian believes that he needs to persevere with the SC0 and to make it last longer during the races.
“This morning was difficult because the track temperature was so low and we damaged the soft tyre really quickly. This afternoon was a lot better but I think mostly the track temperature was much higher and that made the difference. I rode half the afternoon session on the SCO and then changed to the SC1 and I did my fastest lap time on the SC1. I was not surprised as the bike is improving as we are setting it for this circuit,” said Brookes, at the track.
“But I don’t think the future is in the SC1 as I think we need to persevere with the SC0 and get it to last longer. We also have some front tyre wear as well and the SC2 front tyre could be considered but again I think we can change the balance of the bike and make the soft front and rear work, as opposed to trying to find a solution with the harder tyre.
“I think all we have done is seen the threshold quicker. I don’t think the lap times are going to be dramatically faster. I just think we have arrived at the point probably quicker as the track was in pretty good condition this afternoon, and the sun was on it and the warm temperatures - and that is why we jumped into the [fast] lap times fairly quickly.”
