BMW’s Tom Sykes blew most of the competition away on day one of WorldSBK action at Aragon, even through his engine upgrades have not yet materialised.

But in the other parts of he circuit where horsepower considerations are less important, Sykes was competitively quick, even on such a new bike as he experimented with split throttle bodies.

“I honestly cannot believe, considering where we are at the moment, how fast we are in some of the sectors,” said Sykes. “I know that there is still some more to come from this package.

I am really happy with the BMW Motorrad WorldSBK team and tomorrow is another day. We will try to put these changes on a slightly better way moving forward tomorrow, see what the weather brings and go racing.”

Sykes put it down to a good base package and hard work from the crews involved – and some of the nature of Motorland Aragon. “BMW are working very hard, as are the whole team,” he stated.

“The track layout puts us closer to where I think our potential is. We are still giving away some straightline performance but there is only one straight here, which is nice. The infield section is where more of our potential is.

“I will be focusing on that, and we will see what upgrades we get in the future. They cannot come soon enough but the timeframe that everybody is up against and where we are already is always impressive. Without the straights we are in the ballpark.”

Sykes would not make a direct answer of whether or not his team has now started using the split throttle bodies the stock bike comes with to their full already, rather than starting with all four opening in unison.

But it is understood that is what was being tested during free practice at Motorland. Sykes did speak of a small crash in FP2 that was the result of some chassis experimentation.

“I had a small fall at turn one,” he said, with his leathers lightly scuffed.

We had a session where we tried a lot with the chassis. There are obviously always positives and negatives. It made the chassis set-up in a way that was not fantastic, so I unloaded the front in turn one and down I went.

“The positive is that we did some changes in the set-up, sacrificed long consistent runs to do three changes with the chassis and one with the electronics. So I feel now that we have got a lot of good information. We are trying some things with the electronics, which I am sure people have already heard, but as far as I am aware that is it.”

Is it really slow?

We put the question of how slow the BMW is to Alex Lowes, who is the obvious target for Sykes this weekend.

My bike is quicker than his, I think. Only just though, it is not as big a difference. In Australia their bike was really slow, and he could not race there because it was too slow. But they have improved a little bit - but my bike is quicker than his for sure. A couple of Ks.

"In all fairness to the BMW it is always difficult to say ‘he is faster on this bit of the track or that bit of the track’, but there are some parts of the track where my bike works fantastically – in longer corners it is good. So all the bikes have their strengths.

"In those twistier bits, if a bike is a bit slower, as has happened in the past, it is maybe a bit easier to ride – I don’t know. It is good if they can be up there and we need more people up there.”