SYKES 3RD AT KNOCKHILL BSB QUALIFYING
Rizla Suzuki's Tom Sykes and Atsushi Watanabe got the eighth
round of the Bennetts British Superbike Championship at Knockhill
off to a good start today with Sykes taking third place and
Watanabe finishing in an encouraging 14th.
The top 14 riders are covered by just over a second which
shows just how close the on track action is at the undulating
1.3-mile Scottish venue. Sykes used both his Rizla Suzuki's
during the two dry 50-minute free practice sessions, working
on different chassis settings.
His Rizla Suzuki technicians have a direction to go in and
a few more changes to make which will fine-tune the GSX-R1000
so that Sykes can make the most of its nimble chassis on this
rider's circuit.
Watanabe concentrated on learning the difficult track as
well as working on chassis set-up and engine braking on his
Rizla Suzuki. He dropped his lap time by a quarter of a second
between the two sessions and will improve further ahead of
the singular 50-minute qualifying session tomorrow. Honda's
Leon Haslam was fastest.
Jack Valentine - Team Manager Rizla Suzuki:
"I'm pleased with how today has gone we are right up
there at the sharp end as I expected. It is unbelievably close
with just 0.002secs separating the top three. Our Rizla Suzuki
is performing well and there is more to come.
"Atsu has made progress today and is learning the track
well. He isn't too far away from a top ten, half a second
would do it and that should come easily tomorrow, at the moment
it is all going according to plan."
Free practice results:
1: Leon Haslam (Honda) 49.004
2: Shane Byrne (Ducati) +0.000
3: Tom Sykes (Rizla Suzuki) +0.002
4: Cal Crutchlow (Honda) +0.008
5: Michael Laverty (Suzuki) +0.193
6: Michael Rutter (Ducati) +0.317
7: Leon Camier (Ducati) +0.324
8: Billy McConnell (Kawasaki) +0.396
9: Scott Smart (Kawasaki) +0.494
10: Karl Harris (Yamaha) +0.537
14: Atsushi Watanabe (Rizla Suzuki) +1.176
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