With expectations high leading into the 2022 British Superbike season, Sykes and Brookes could only manage 12th and 13th during race one - 13 seconds adrift of the podium placꦚes.

Honda, Yamaha, Kawasaki and BMW all represented th🃏e top six, however, the top Ducati was Tommy Bridewell in seventh, making it a tou💞gh season opener overall.  

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Although it was no surprise to see Sykes out of contention for a top five due to it being his first ra🦋ce back in BSB since 2010, Brookes on the other hand doesn’t have such excuses.

The Australian, ཧwho was convincingly beaten by Christian Iddon in 2021, had looked strong during pre-season testing at Snetterton, however, race one brought back shades of last season’s struggles, not that of the year prior wꦕhen he won the title.  

“It’s been a difficult start to the season, 🤪and I’m obviously not pleased w♍ith the result,” said Brookes. “We made a small change for the race which was possibly the wrong way. 

“We’d been improving steadily in practice a🃏nd qualifying so the change, although not big, wasn’t helpful either and when I caught Tom it got quite difficult. 

“Although we’re on the same bike, we’ve got different styles of riding and I didn’t wan😼t to do anything desperate trying to get by him s๊o I consolidated the position. 

“It’s a bitter p🧸ill to swallow but it’s only race one, so we won’t get too downhearted.”

For Sykes, ꦑthe former WorldSBK champion hasn’t looked as comfortable as fellow BSB returnee Leon Haslam - the new Visiontrack Kawasaki rider lined-up fifth for yesterday’s race before a technical issue brought his day to an early end.

The MCE Ducati rider, who like Brookes was unable to go further forward despite a good start, was happy to score points but admitted being that far back is ‘frustrating’.&🅰nbsp;

Traction costing Sykes in his British Superbike debut…

Sykes said: “Today has been a bit of a mixed bag to be honest. It was good to get the first race out of the way and get some points on the board but frustrating not to be closer to the sha♉rp end. 

“I made a good start and made some passes on the brakes with the bike turning real✅ly well but we’re suffering when w♛e open the throttle as we haven’t got the traction we need. 

“Many aspects of the bike are in the ballpark and it’s just that one area that’s h𓆉olding us back ꦛthis weekend so there’s a bit of work to do in that respect. 

“𒀰I’ve got a good feeling with the bike though and t🦹here’s a great team spirit, so we’ll look to move forward tomorrow.”

What would a good Easter Sunday at Silverstone look like for Sykes and Brookes? 

Firstly, both riders will start down the order as grid positions for races two and three are organised based on lap times in race one, not where you qualif𒅌ied on Saturday. 

I꧟t means both Sykes and Brookes will be coming from outside the top ten, but can both riders realistically move forward given the pace we’ve seen so far? 

That will obviously be the aim, but with🎶 British Superbike at its most competi🐭tive ever, securing a top ten is likely to be the most they can achieve, and with that be a good result. 

With all that said, morning warm-up suggested a tough second and third race could be in store for both riders as Sykes🍷 was 🌄15th and Brookes only 21st.