The Milwaukee Yamaha team had a lightening start to the penultimate round of the MCE Insurance British Superbike Championship at Silverstone today with both Josh Brookes and Jakub Smrz setting a pace under the existing lap record.

Brookes had been battling for the top spot on the timesheets but narrowly missed out by 0.074s as he continued working through various setting changes to be in a position ready for Sunday’s races where he will fight to extend his 28 point lead in the standings.

Smrz also had a positive opening day at Silverstone, his fastest lap was just 0.798s adrift of the pace-setting time of the day and the Czech contender is getting stronger with every lap on the Milwaukee Yamaha in only his second weekend with the team.

Josh Brookes

"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 SC0 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. 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.

"I think all we have done is seen the threshold quicker today. I think we all 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."  

Jakub Smrz 

"It was a really good day – we tried something a bit different to Assen in the first session and got some information from it and based on that we made two changes for FP2 and the bike felt different, really good. It was the best setting that I have had with this bike. I did a lot of laps but still have to change my riding style. It is going well for us, a good job so far and I am happy today."