Global Roots BMW’s Peter Hickman left the Croft BSB test pleased with the progress his crew has made with engine braking and throttle control.

The Isle of Man TT lap record holder was focused on these two areas and said the bike was better on each pit exit.

“Over the winter the team have made some really good changes based on what we learnt last year and so we have done loads of work with the engine braking and throttle control, more so than with the chassis, which we started when we were testing in Spain,” said Hickman.

“That was a different approach to last year. What we learnt at the Spanish tests in March meant that we had a load of strategies to start testing at Croft and each time we went out it felt like we had improved the bike.

“In fact the Croft test felt like we made more improvements than we have before in the shorter space of time and that was a really good feeling.

“I am looking forward now to how we compare to everyone else at the official test as that is the first time everyone is together again. That will be the first real marker of where everyone is at before the opening round.”