Only three drivers managed to go under 1'41 in Catalonia, and it was a bit of a surprise to find the Briton's BMW among this leading trio. Jonathan Rhea and his Kawasaki preceded in 1'40.450 Scott Redding and his Ducati in 1'40.606 as well as Tom Sykes and his BMW in 1'40.956. The other S 1000 RR of Eugene Laverty was sixth in 1'41.494.
Building on this good result, Tom Sykes declared “I feel really good because we had a very productive test in Germany and we continued that same form here in Catalonia. »
“It's great to be here because I've never driven on the track so I really enjoyed the layout of the whole circuit. We had a good testing program and we worked on many points with the BMW S 1000 RR gathering crucial information. »
“It is clear that the entire BMW Motorrad WorldSBK team has worked hard during this difficult period, because we arrived here with a lot of ideas. She worked on different geometry settings, front and rear suspension settings, chassis options and we certainly improved the electronic strategy. We are still exploring these settings; we just need a little time to put it all together. »
According to his Irish teammate Eugene Laverty, “This test was my best ride on the bike so far, it was fantastic and especially in the last session. I did a ride yesterday that had good pace, but I knew I had more to give today and I proved it. »
“We ran 1'43.300 from the start and by lap 18 we were at 1'43.000, which was incredible compared to what a lot of other guys were doing over the race distance. »
“Thursday morning I had a good pace on the racing tire and then I jumped on the qualifying tire, but I had a small crash. This is an accident similar to that at Phillip Island, which we need to look into. Overall I'm happy with the test and looking forward to coming to Jerez in a few weeks. »
According to Marc Bongers, director of BMW Motorrad Motorsport : “We are looking forward to returning to competition after the long break we have had since Australia. These tests in Barcelona were very useful for us in preparing for the resumption of the season. »
“The conditions have been such that we expect them during the next rounds which we will have in Spain and Portugal. It was also very nice to get familiar with the Circuit de Catalunya where we will be racing for the first time in September. »
“We now know a little better what to expect there. We are now looking forward to heading to Jerez and getting back into competition mode. »
According to Shaun Muir, team leader of the BMW Motorrad WorldSBK team, “We had a few things to test and, very importantly, some track familiarization to prepare us for the next race later in the season. »
“The updates we had to test were mainly related to electronic strategy and a lot of the other work we focused on was race simulations and tire wear in the later stages of the race. »
“I'm generally happy with Tom and Eugene. It was very difficult to judge the lap times overall as it was very cool in the morning and most drivers were looking to get lap times very early. Once the temperatures rose, we focused on racing. »
“Overall we are happy, we had a good test in Lausitz and here in Barcelona, so we can now look forward to the restart of the SBK World Championship in Jerez. »
Photos © BMW Motorrad Motorsport
