Milwaukee Yamaha's Ian Hutchinson hasn't ruled out a podium in today's Dainese Superbike TT but says he is suffering from a lack of laps on his return to the Isle of Man.
Troubles with his YZF-R6 have meant the Bingley man has only done 12 laps in total and is only a fast last night as he was in 2012 when Hutchinson rode with a cage on his badly-damaged leg.
Superbike-wise we're not in a desperate situation it's just lack of laps, that's the biggest problem. I've done twelve laps this week and after missing last year it's really hard for me to get up to speed and change things with the bike," said Hutchinson, speaking to bikesportnews.com last night.
"I rode here in 2012 to try and get some data for this year but I'm going as fast now as I did in 2012 by the end of it so it's not really done much for us in the way of data. We've also got different forks to the ones we ran that year. It's just a time thing I think, I need more time on it. I know my way around here and I know what the bike can do, I just need time on the bike.
"If you look at practice week, every single night you get faster and I've only done 12 laps between both bikes this week! We've had problems with the 600, I've broken down on it a few nights so it's lost me laps on both bikes as I've been stuck out there. Last night I did no laps at all and everyone was out for three laps. I'm just not getting my eye on the ball quick enough and not getting the laps in. It's not really a disaster yet but it's close to it.
I can't believe I'm going into a race having done 12 laps of the course. After all the time I've had off it's really disappointing but I can't change that, it is what it is. I'll get stuck in and hopefully we can make some improvements tonight, go again and see where we are and it might end up up being a dry run for the Senior but hopefully I can get stuck in.
"I think we'd be dreaming if we thought about winning the race but you never know what can happen here, we might end up with a podium if we improve the set up and get away well."
