Milwaukee Yamaha’s Josh Brookes gave the new R1 its first MCE British Superbike podium at Donington Park but admitted to being nervous before race one as he had no idea how the bike would perform over a full race distance.

The longest run the Australian had done was ten laps in morning warm up but the by the end, the rear Pirelli SC0 had done 18 laps with a heat cycle, so he only had to content with a full fuel load at the start of the race which was another unknown.

“I was a bit nervous in the morning as we didn’t know how well the setup would translate into the race. Warm-up was a confidence booster as the tyre had already done six laps and been through a heat cycle, and I was able to do good, consistent times,” said Brookes, speaking to bikespornews.com.

“We ended up with 18 laps on the tyre so we knew it would do a race distance and it doesn’t deteriorate too much. That was important for me.

“As we run the standard fuel tank at the moment, a lot of the weight is up high around the filler whereas with a race tank, it is further down so the weight is more centralised and the bike isn’t affected.

“The first laps were really tough as I struggled to get the bike to do as I wanted. As the fuel went down and I got into a better rhythm, I started to lap consistently. It looked from the outside like I caught everyone up at the end but I was just doing the same laptimes and they slowed a little.

“I got a better start in the second but again didn’t feel too good with the fuel, so I got pushed back and lost the pack. I managed to get back on them and began to feel confident and then Kiyo crashed in front of me. I had to stand it up to brake, went on the grass and everyone came past. I was nine seconds down when I re-joined and finished 5.3s behind, so the pace was good.”

Get the issue of Bikesport News, on sale Thursday, to see how Milwaukee make the near-standard R1 into a podium bike