BMW's Tom Sykes finished the opening day of WorldSBK practice at Phillip Island fourth on the combined timesheet and only three-tenths slower than leader Alvaro Bautista.
But the Huddersfield rider is concerned about the top-speed deficit between himself and the Aruba Ducati - 198mph compared to 186mph - and how tough it is to make up time under braking and through turns.
"I’m relatively happy with today, all the time we have been building and ultimately we’ve gained a lot of information from today’s Free Practice. We need to look at a few areas where we can improve,": said Sykes.
"Unfortunately, I think now everyone has seen how much we are giving away down the straights which as a rider at this level is hard to take back in the corners, but I really feel we are doing as much as we can with chassis, so in time the rest will come naturally.
"We have to be realistic and I’m keeping my eye on the targets we set before we came to Philip Island, that being said we’ve had a very good Phillip island so far considering this isn’t one of my strongest circuits, so we will try to keep working in the right direction and see where we end up during the race."
