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Cartagena BSB test: Byrne learns from ‘big shock’ in Spain

Former MCE British Superbike Champion Shane Byrne says he and the Be Wiser Ducati team have learned a lot about their new Panigale at the Cartagena circuit after getting a big shock when the bike proved difficult to ride.

Byrne had a low-speed crash at the end of his first day and the team have really had to pull out the stops to find some grip for the Kent man. Byrne finished down in 12th place and more than a second behind the likes of Leon Haslam, James Ellison and Michael Laverty - his likely title challengers.

"Cartagena is a really low grip circuit where you spend all your time on the side of the tyre and after the fantastic test that we had in Portugal, I came here absolutely brimming with confidence. In my own mind I was convinced that the Ducati was going to be phenomenal and the fact that Mossey had some days before we got here, then all the guys had an extra day on us, I thought it would be absolutely perfect. I thought we would be able to get out after already having a test, and get straight up to speed and be pretty much in the ball park from the word go,” said Byrne.

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"But I think after the first couple of exits we got the biggest kind of shock I think I have ever got out of a race bike. It has felt the whole time we have been here like it has six thousand horse power and like a wet tyre in the rear; it has been particularly difficult to ride, to manage, to control to a certain degree and that was a massive surprise. That said, it made us look at where we were in Portugal, look at the way the bike worked in Portugal, bearing in mind how fast we were in Portugal, and revisit some stuff and go in a much better direction than perhaps we would have done if we had not come here.

"I think that it would be really, really easy to sit here and be a little bit down about the way the test went in general but I think in maybe two or three weeks time, or when the season starts, we won't look back at this test and think 'oh my God, what on earth happened there? We will look back and think, ‘Flipping hell, how lucky were we that it happened there' as this test has taught us a lot about the bike.

"I honestly think that give it a round or two, we will be so, so grateful that we came here and go this sort of surprise. It is hard to say that I am happy to be not as fast as guys that we can beat week in, week out, I am not going to lie.

“I would loved to have been fastest, but at the same time we have seen that in years previous it doesn't matter how fast you are around Cartagena for one lap, unless you can do however many laps it is at Silverstone in the race and maintain a fast pace, you are not going to be anywhere. In Portugal we had about a drop off of about half a second a lap from the minute we used a tyre until the minute that the tyre was over race distance and numbers like that, and the information that we learnt at this test, means much more to me than a lap time at Cartagena.”

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