Kawasaki’s Tom Sykes used his time at the Jerez test to remove setup options from a long list, test new parts in both wet and dry conditions, and says he now goes to the final Phillip Island test able to concentrate on outright performance.

The former WorldSBK champion has been able to whittle down a list of chassis components and work towards a base setting for the first round in a couple of weeks’ time.

“On day one we started strongly and then very quickly moved on to try out many different test items and machine setup changes. We knew where we were with the base of the bike and we then used a lot of time on track to ensure we will arrive in Phillip Island with a lot less options to evaluate,” said Sykes.

“We still have some small work to do in the Australian tests but because of what we did yesterday we were able to go through a lot of items. Today, in the wet, we built up speed, gradually made some small changes and ended up fairly close to where we needed to be. We found out a lot of information. We now have a cleaner slate to make our preparations for the first race. For Phillip Island we need to start being more focused on performance.”