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Yamaha World Superbike rider Ben Spies got straight down to business at Donington today, with some rain falling in the second session. His track knowledge gained at last year’s MotoGP clearly paid off as he ended the first free practice session of the day at the top of the time sheets ahead of British Superbike wildcard Leon Camier on the Airwaves Yamaha. The qualifying session saw Spies using old tyres from the morning’s free practice while he worked on a good set up for the weekend. He finished the first qualifying session of the weekend in third, just half a second behind leader Fabrizio.

Team-mate Tom Sykes was clearly happy to be on a circuit he knows well and was regularly in the top five in the free practice session whilst setting up his Yamaha R1 for the Donington circuit for the first time, eventually finishing in eighth position. The afternoon’s qualifying session saw him repeatedly in the top three however a change of set up in the last ten minutes to try different settings saw him drop to end the session in 11th.

Ben Spies, Yamaha World Superbike Team (3rd, 1’31.294)
“today went well for us. We started out with a good first session. The second session started out wet, we tried a very different set up to the one we used in Misano and straight away we were quick, when the track was wet we were second quickest which was good. When it dried out we put on tyres that we had used in the first free practice session and put race distance on them. They were heat cycled and already had a lot of laps on them from this morning and we were still right there and running 1’31s easily so the bike’s working really well. I’m looking forward to tomorrow.”

Tom Sykes

Tom Sykes, Yamaha World Superbike Team (11th, 1’31.838)
“today we’ve made big steps, but I was a little bit annoyed that we made the top three in the qualifying session then with ten minutes to go I came in to make some changes which didn’t work. By the time I was back out I didn’t want to come back in so I put my head down and tried my best. I knew if I’d stayed with the setting from before I think we could have improved by at least 5/10ths plus. It’s not where I wanted to be in first qualifying so I’ll have to put my head down in qualifying tomorrow for a few laps just to put a good time in. overall I think things are progressing and I certainly think we’ll be there at the end of the weekend.”

Massimo Meregalli, Yamaha World Superbike Team Manager
“Pretty good for the first day. For sure the rain compromised it a bit, so we were unable to try some things we had planned but in the end we finished close to the front so we are still confident we can do another good result. Let’s see what the weather brings tomorrow, both riders are confident and keen to get back on the track in the morning.”buy Yat goh hiu yan A Girl in Every Port divx