Santander TAG Yamaha's Dan Linfoot surprised himself with overall second place in yesterday's Bennetts British Superbike test at Silverstone, given the lack of track time the Yorkshireman has had with his new bike at team.

Linfoot, who made the switch away from Honda for 2019, finished only 0.044s behind the much-more-works McAMS Yamaha of former team-mate Jason O'Halloran in what was the first proper run out on the R1 in full BSB trim.

“I was very surprised. Honestly, I haven’t done a fast lap on the bike until yesterday afternoon. We’ve done two track days in the freezing cold with 40 bikes on track, and all I’ve been able to do is get comfortable with the bike in terms of bars and seating  position,” said Linfoot, speaking to bikesportnews.com.

“At least I had a bike yesterday I was comfortable on but I expected to be in the top ten and hopefully not too far off. I didn’t expect to go quite so well as we did.

“I had a really good feeling with the bike, it’s very calm and not trying to spit you off all the time, you’re not fighting it all the time like you are with the Honda. Obviously, I was pushing but I still felt like I was respecting the track because it was cold.

“It’s encouraging, and it was funny to see Jason first and me second. I’m happy enough, it’s a great starting point for us. We didn’t change much, a few clickers and something with the engine braking.

“It might behave a bit differently in a race scenario and in a group but I’m looking forward to getting started. I’m not going out there to win the thing at round one, I want to try and settle into the top six and stay there.”