Brookes and Iddon fast for Ducati at Silverstone BSB test
The first Official BSB test of 2021 saw Visiontrack Ducati riders Josh Brookes and Christian Iddon finish 12th and ninth respectively.
Brookes heads into this season as the current British Superbike champion for the second time in his career, and is also the first rider since Tommy Hill in 2012 to run the number one plate.
The Australian was on the pace for much of the two days around the National Silverstone layout (finished six of the eight sessions inside the top ten), however, the 38 year-old suffered a fast crash at Maggots corner late on.
The crash resulted in a trip to the hospital as he sustained a finger injury. "I’ve taken a lot of skin off the little finger and there is a risk of infection as it’s down to the bone, but apart from that I’m OK and my finger is fine," said Brookes.
"There are no other injuries so it’s just a case of getting it cleaned up. I’m still working out what happened in the crash, but the track was cooling down and I perhaps carried a bit too much brake so maybe that’s what happened.
"The test was good to a point, but we did a lot of experimenting and didn’t really find a lot that improved our existing package.
"It’s now a case of working on what we know best and finding the consistency we need."
Like team-mate Brookes, Iddon was fast throughout the first of four pre-season tests, as he goes into his second year with the Paul Bird ran Ducati squad.
Speaking after the test, Iddon said: "I’m really happy with the way the test has gone, everything is good.
"Silverstone is unique as everyone ends up with very similar lap times, it’s just one of those tracks. My aim over the two days was to experiment with a few ideas and to try some stuff we didn’t get round to trying last year, mainly to do with tyre life and some other settings.
"We achieved what we needed and in the last session, I just did a race run rather than chasing a lap time.
"It was unfortunate for Josh to crash and hope his finger injury is not too serious."
