Loris Baz and his Ten Kate Racing Yamaha independent team got their noses in front of WorldSBK king Jonathan Rea in first practice at Jerez, and stayed there all day as the afternoon conditions got hotter and hotter.

It was all a good reward for some good setup work, and came even though Baz was stopped by a technical issue just after he had reached his best-of-day pace of 1’40.249.

“It is good to be back and it is especially funny watching the MotoGP races over the last two weeks,” Baz told bikesportnews.com about finally getting going again after five months of no real racing.

“It was exciting so I was looking forward to ride. Now I am happy because it was a good result.

"We did a test in Barcelona and a test in Assen. We had a few ideas of things to try because it was really warm in Catalunya and we were struggling a little on the pace.

"We were talking a lot with Mick (Shanley, his crew chief) and decided that we had to try something straight away this morning. We did two fast runs, five laps/five laps, and I found an improvement straight away - thinking about the race – not only in the moment.

"I had a great feeling straight away. Then we had a technical problem and I could not finish the session but still I finished first and I felt good. We had a strong afternoon also working for the race.”

Baz also tried out some new rubber but like a few others was not that keen in the beginning. “I tried a few tyres that did not have the really good feeling so I went back on the first two tyres that I used in the beginning of FP2.

"I then did a 15-lap run and the tyre had more than 20 laps at the end. The pace was good. It was tough because it was hot, but we are not going to complain about that. The grip in the afternoon was not so bad, to be honest, I expected it to be worse.

"It was not so bad and even the tyre life, sure it was dropping a lot but not crazy. At Barcelona, in the test, it was even worse.

I am really happy with the feeling and the feedback the track gave, but then it is going to be even warmer tomorrow and we know that when you ride in the pack, it is always harder in these conditions, I did one lap behind Marco (Melandri) and it feels like it is ten degrees more when you are behind someone.

"Also the engine, everything. It is the kind of race where starting in front will help a lot.”

Baz got his hands on a 2020 engine for this weekend, and said it just felt like it had a bit more top end than his 2019 version.

“It has a bit more power - I do not think it is the main track where it is going to make the biggest difference,” said Baz.

“But we have a bit more power and for sure it is helping a lot. It is the weakest point on the R1. But like we saw last week in the GP, it was not the fastest bike that won. For sure it will help but it is not the main thing.”

His technical problem is being sussed out as this text is being typed, but he thought at the time that whatever it was it was engine. “I don’t know, something on the engine, we do not know exactly, so the guys changed the engine to be safe and they are going to look tonight,” said Baz. “I am just happy it happened in FP1 and not tomorrow.”