Milwaukee Yamaha’s Tommy Bridewell stormed to the top of the Cartagena test timesheets today, banging in a 1’34.1s lap right at the end of the day to outpace the opposition by around a second.

The Devizes swearbox finished his final six-lap run on a worn SC0 while the opposition, including Tyco Suzuki’s John Hopkins, were unofficially in the mid 1’35s bracket for most of the day.

“The bike and the team are working really well and I just feel good on it. I feel relaxed on the bike, I don’t feel like I am pushing really hard to get that time. I wasn’t pushing to get it,” said Bridewell, speaking to bikesportnews.com at the circuit.

“We said last night that today would be a lot of work, we had a lot to get through. I had three different suspension links to try, so we have been busy. We went to the third link in the last session and I didn’t have to ride half as hard with it as I did when I was doing a mid-35, that was how much we improved the bike, which is a credit to the crew.

“We might try something with the fork oil heights tomorrow and go back to a second link just to see if it works better on a new tyre, but I want to do some race distances. I feel strong with a new tyre and stronger with an old tyre, so I would like try and do an 18-lap run.

“I don’t want to concentrate on breaking the lap record. I’m more interested to see how the SC0 is working, then do a back-to-back with an SC1. We might change the engine braking too but there isn’t a lot to change except for me riding it a bit harder.”

Unofficial times from the BSN stopwatch:

Tommy Bridewell Milwaukee Yamaha 1'34.1

Josh Brookes Milwaukee Yamaha 1'34.9

Jakub Smrz Millsport Ducati 1'35.4

Ian Hutchinson FX Yamaha 1'35.5

Joe Burns JG Speedfit Kawasaki 1'35.6

John Hopkins Tyco Suzuki 1'35.6

Josh Waters Tyco Suzuki 1'35.9