Milwaukee Yamaha were denied the pole position at Knockhill today ahead of the fourth round of the MCE Insurance British Superbike Championship by just 0.004 seconds as Josh Brookes lines up second on the grid for the opening race and Tommy Bridewell in tenth position.

Brookes had been pushing for his second pole position of the season and with the improvements made by the team during free practice and qualifying, the Australian is confident heading in to race day tomorrow. On the opposite side of the garage Tommy Bridewell had a challenging day in Scotland. A technical problem and then a crash gave the team a huge amount of work ahead of qualifying, but the dedicated crew and a determined Bridewell turned the day around to qualify seventh. Bridewell will line up tenth on the grid for the opening race after he was issued a three grid place penalty for a delayed response to the black and orange flags in free practice three this morning.

Brookes said:

“Normally I like Kiyo and he is one of my favourite past team-mates, but not right now because we were here to take the pole position. I am quite happy with where we are now because I started the weekend a bit frustrated but we have worked hard and fine tuned the Milwaukee Yamaha and that has given me confidence to push to the limit. We have been making improvements throughout qualifying and today it has been a race in the pitlane as well as on the track to achieve the results we have and I need to thank the team for their work. We were close today and we didn’t give up and we certainly will be pushing again tomorrow in the races.”

Bridewell said:

“I was happy at the end of the day with the pace that we had in qualifying, especially as the bike was completely rebuilt and new after the crash this morning. It takes time when you are in that position to get your confidence back usually, but we didn’t have time for that and we just had to go for it. We banged in some laps and got through to Q3 and although I was seventh I have to start tenth which has me even more determined for the races. I need to get a good start and make back those positions and I will be giving everything to make sure that happens and I won’t be taking any prisoners. I am ready for tomorrow and that is down to the team and their hard work so thanks to them.”

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