Milwaukee Yamaha’s Josh Brookes opted to play it safe in the tricky conditions of today’s MCE British Superbike qualifying session at Silverstone as he thought it was too risky to run a full slick setup on a still-wet track.

The Bringelly rider ended up on the second row after staying with an intermediate rear while poleman Ryuichi Kiyonari opted to take the gamble on a circuit that was fully wet for the first period but then began to dry quickly in parts.

“Qualifying one was such that parts of the track were so wet you couldn’t use anything but wets to do a decent time. So I did that, everything was fine and I came in early to make sure we had time to make a decision for the second part,” said Brookes, speaking to bikesportnews.com this evening.

“In that, I went on inters because the track had got to the stage where we could go quicker. We did that, I was quite fast and then stopped early so think about what we needed to pick for the final run.

“For the final part, I was unsure of what to do because Stowe was fully wet and you have to really brake hard off the Hangar Straight and turn at the same time. I didn’t know what anyone else was doing and normally I am the first guy to change to slicks.

“In this instance, I was apprehensive because of the situation at that part of the circuit and how much brake and angle you have to use. I didn’t want to run the risk of a front slick as that could ruin the lap so I left the inter on with a slick rear.

“I should have gone to a slick but I still feel the track was wet into Stowe but other riders used a slick so it would have been OK but before I went out I was worried so I played it safe. Second row is OK though and we can go forward from there.”

On a lighter note, Brookes, girlfriend Aimie and bikesportnews.com decided this morning that Madeira cake was the optimum in terms of taste, consistency and moistness.