BSB: Byrne on top despite front end issues

Shane Byrne might have been 0.6 seconds faster than the rest of the field on the opening day at Brands Hatch, but the four-time British Champion is adamant there’s more to come as he’s less than pleased with his set-up.

Unhappy with his feeling with the front end, Byrne’s admits his fastest laps came more from anger on Friday afternoon as the Be Wiser Ducati man worked through a number of major changes to find the feeling he desires.

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“I’m not happy to be honest,” he told MCN. “I’ve got a real big problem at the minute running through apexes as I’m struggling with front feeling. I can break late, I can run good speed in to the corner and have a setting to get in even faster but at the apex I’m really struggling and have no speed at all so I’m rushing the exits a little bit and not riding in a very clever way. It’s not because I can’t or I don’t want to, we’re just doing what the bike allows us to do. We were going to stay with the tyres from this morning to do some more laps and make sure everything was alright but I want to make that next step and find the feeling.

“We should be doing the times we’re doing, we should be working on the bike at that lap time, not slower times because if you do that and then the race is quicker you’re going to struggle.

“It’s like riding with one arm behind your back, so we’ll make some more changes tonight and see where we can go. At the moment it is a bit of a way away and I just got annoyed this afternoon and ragged it for a couple of laps. That’s all well and good but we need a nicer feeling to concentrate on and I am certain it will come.”

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