Tyco Suzuki’s Josh Brookes was on course for his best lap of the weekend during the MCE British Superbike qualifying sessions at Cadwell Park, until he crashed out at Barn in Q3. He now starts the race tomorrow from seventh on the grid, but has spent the weekend trying new things that he hasn’t done on the bike before.

The Aussie rider has gone away from his ‘normal strategy’, and he only made the mistake because he was pushing so hard. Brookes was unhurt, and the bike was not too damaged, but he is in good form going into race one tomorrow.

“Even without the crash we were a little slower than we needed to be, but I knew that would be the case as we’re trying things with the bike and using this as an opportunity to unveil anything that we haven’t tried or discovered before,” said Brookes.

“We’ve gone away from the normal strategy this weekend and are trying a few things, but to fall off was just me trying hard. You get to the final qualifying and I wanted to try as hard as I could and I just pushed the front.

“It was never going to be an amazing lap but it was definitely one of the best laps that I’d been on. I’m not hurt and the bike is not too bad so we should be in good shape for the opening race tomorrow.”