BMW's Tom Sykes made a big step with race tyre performance over two days of WorldSBK testing at Jerez and brushed off a late crash while lapping on the Q-tyre.
Sykes enters his second season with the S1000RR in 2020 and even though there was no sign of an engine upgrade, he will be considering himself a title contender.
We've had a big list to go through and the boys have worked hard. I am very satisfied with what we achieved. We really tried a lot on the BMW S1000RR, definitely made progress and for me now I can go into the winter feeling happy with our performance," said Sykes.
Certainly on race tyres as well, we found quite a step and also over the distance. The bike was working nice and we obviously tried the qualifying tyre at the end.
"It was incredible but after two strong sectors I unfortunately made a small mistake in the hairpin and crashed. But I was interested in how the bike feels with high grip and I also went for another lap after the crash.
"For me that was good because we have extra information going into the winter. Overall it was a good test with a consistent track to work through a very big list and that’s what we needed all season. Thanks to the whole team and the guys back at the factory for working so hard to make things possible."