31.07.20
Circuito de Jerez – Ángel Nieto
BMW Motorrad WorldSBK’s Tom Sykes and Eugene Laverty today finally returned to the WorldSBK Championship ahead of the highly anticipated Round 2 at the Circuito de Jerez – Ángel Nieto (SPAIN).
This morning’s FP1 session did not get off to the best of starts for the #50 of Eugene Laverty following a minor clutch problem in the opening moments, losing some important session time. Despite the setback Eugene still managed to get 13 laps in with a best of (1’41.685) ending the session in P16.
The luck didn’t continue for Eugene in FP2, following a crash at T2 midway through the session. Laverty however was showing some fast pace in the early stages and lapped a (1'41.201) which put him into P9 at the end of FP2.
Tom Sykes went through FP1 making some slight adjustments to his BMW S 1000 RR which did not have much impact on his overall pace, however making good progress ready for FP2 later in the afternoon. Sykes ended the session in P14 (1’41.409)
The temperature expectedly increased for the afternoons FP2 session and the Yorkshire man Sykes managed to improve on his lap time set earlier that morning. FP2 result P8 (1’41.134)
Shaun Muir - Team Principal
“We hit a few unexpected problems today, however, despite that in the more difficult session of FP2 ,both riders were able to put some really good race simulations in which overall placed them P6,P7 so on paper that was very promising.
Overall, we had a few issues to sort out which I’m glad happened today and not tomorrow. I feel FP3 will be a good session for us to go do another race simulation. Thereafter we go into Superpole where hopefully we can get both riders onto the front two rows which will put in good stead for the race.
Tom Sykes (GBR)
"This morning was just one of those sessions, we had some bedding in to do with the braking system which wasn’t ideal and had a few changes to do, so this morning I wouldn’t say was a wasted session but we got a lot of things out of the way ready for FP2. The afternoon session we focused on working towards a race time and estimating the tyres and temperatures which I felt pretty good in, especially during that first exit so I am looking forward to tomorrow to see what we can do on the BMW S 1000 RR."
Eugene Laverty (IRL)
“Its nice to be back at a race weekend, we’ve been testing a fair bit recently but nothing compares to it when your against the clock. Unfortunately this morning that didn’t work well for me as a I had a small issue with the clutch, which lost us a lot of time which is never easy as your up against it from the word go. FP2 was really good in the first half, we were able to push and put some good laps in which were towards to top of the leader board but unfortunately I had a crash at T2 which again set us back in the session. We are a little behind in the sessions but ideally I am pushing to get myself into those first two rows which will help us hugely for the race."
