Milwaukee Yamaha’s Josh Brookes ended the second MCE British Superbike free practice session ninth fastest on the timing-screens, which has left the Bringelly rider feeling ‘surprised’ with his lack of pace, especially after a successful test at the Assen circuit.

Brookes and his crew are slightly puzzled by the lap times, and they think track conditions must have been slightly different during the sessions today, so the team might resort to their usual setup, and not what they used for the test.

“It has been disappointing today and to be honest we have been a little bit surprised. At the test, apart from the lap Shakey did at the end of the day, we had a set-up that was able to do the consistently fastest times so we thought we would be in a good position,” said Brookes.

“Coming back now the track conditions must be slightly different as we have come back with exactly the same motorbike and can’t match the times we did before.

“Looking at the positives, the bike is quite different from how I would normally ride it because to get the bike to go quickly at the test we had to change it to what I would usually use.

“At the test though it went fast so that’s what it needed. It now seems like it wants to be put back to how it normally is compared to what we had at the test. We are now looking at tomorrow, so we might go with what we think might be more practical and see where we go from there.”

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