The weekend has got off to a disappointing start for Worx Crescent Suzuki at the eighth round of the 2010 British Superbikes Championship at Kent's Brands Hatch GP circuit:

In the first race of the three-race programme, Yukio Kagayama placed eighth while Tommy Hill managed 15th. Earlier, Hill had qualified on the front row while Kagayama made the second row.

Throughout Friday free practice, both riders wrestled with set-up issues and while Kagayama managed to maintain top-10 times, Hill surprisingly struggled to keep inside the top-20. In this morning's final practice, however, Hill showed some of his racer's craft and guile by springing the fastest lap in a session that started wet but was drying; Kagayama placed seventh fastest. In the 'Swan Roll for Pole' both riders pushed hard for one-off fast laps and both made the third and final qualifier. Hill then dug deep to set fourth fastest time and a claim a front row start in race one while Kagayama placed eighth for a second-row start.

The race this afternoon was a troubled affair. Rain falling on lap 10 forced the race to be restarted. At the time Hill and Kagayama were running eighth and ninth. Hill was then hugely handicapped when he missed the call-up for the re-gridding and had to start from the back row. In the re-run race, over just ten laps, Kagayama held on for eighth place, while Hill, effectively starting in 30th position, did well to battle his way up to 15th.

Yukio Kagayama:

"We have worked hard this weekend to get a good feeling of connection between the throttle and the rear wheel. The feeling is improving each session and the team is working hard. In the re-run race I had to ride with my dry set-up on wet tyres, so I had a lot of wheelspin. This meant I changed my race plan from attack to making the finish. We are not perfect right now but the team is doing a good job and we are improving."

Tommy Hill:

"There is no way I can feel happy right now. I know what we are capable of - we won here earlier this year - but at this time the bike just doesn't feel like my own. In practice the bike never felt right and so for qualifying it was a case of biting down on the screen and putting in those one-off laps. But we haven't got the right race set-up and we'll be working hard on these tonight.

"We can't hide how disappointed we are, but we can't lose sight of where we are in the championship and we'll need to temper the urge to push hard tomorrow, to take on too much risk, with the knowledge we still lead on podium points for the Showdown."

Jack Valentine - Team Manager:

"Tommy's said it all: we're extremely disappointed with where we are. We've got issues with the bikes' set-up and we're off the pace. It doesn't make sense given that we had a race-winning set-up here at the beginning of the year. But this is racing, everything changes with every race, so tonight we'll be working hard analysing our data and working with Tommy and Yukio to see what we can do to give the lads a better chance tomorrow.

"This weekend, Suzuki has been celebrating the 25th anniversary of the GSX-R - and we've had a GSX-R on the top step of the podium today - so we'll be doing all we can to see if we can't put a Worx Crescent GSX-R or two up on the leaderboard too, tomorrow."


MCE Insurance British Superbike Championship:


Swan Combi Roll for Pole result:

1. Michael Rutter (Ridersmotorcycles.com Ducati) 1m:25.766s
2. Tom Sykes (Kawasaki WSB) +0.421s
3. Ryuichi Kiyonari (HM Plant Honda) +0.456s
4. Tommy Hill (Worx Crescent Suzuki) +0.522s
5. Josh Brookes (HM Plant Honda) +0.638s
6. James Ellison (Swan Honda) +0.800s
7. Alastair Seeley (Relentless Suzuki by TAS) +0.815s
8. Yukio Kagayama (Worx Crescent Suzuki) +0.931s
9. Michael Laverty (Relentless Suzuki by TAS) +0.981s
10. Ian Lowry (Kawasaki WSB) +1.430s

Race one result:

1. Alastair Seeley (Relentless Suzuki by TAS)
2. Michael Rutter (Ridersmotorcycles.com Ducati) +0.298s
3. Ryuichi Kiyonari (HM Plant Honda) +1.470s
4. Josh Brookes (HM Plant Honda) +2.926s
5. Tom Sykes (Kawasaki WSB) +14.320s
6. Michael Laverty (Relentless Suzuki by TAS) +17.241s
7. James Ellison (Swan Honda) +21.713s
8. Yukio Kagayama (Worx Crescent Suzuki) +23.516s
9. John Laverty (Buildbase Kawasaki) +24.738s
10. Ian Lowry (Kawasaki WSB) +26.213s
15. Tommy Hill (Worx Crescent Suzuki) +34.253s


MCE Insurance British Superbike Championship standings (after race one):

1. Josh Brookes (HM Plant Honda) 229
2. Tommy Hill (Worx Crescent Suzuki) 219
3. Ryuichi Kiyonari (HM Plant Honda) 209
4. Michael Laverty (Relentless Suzuki by TAS) 193
5. Michael Rutter (Ridersmotorcycles.com Ducati) 185
6. Alastair Seeley (Relentless Suzuki by TAS) 153
16. Yukio Kagayama (Worx Crescent Suzuki) 39