Tommy Hill has warned his rivals that he can still go even quicker than he did on Friday, despite setting the pace at the new Snetterton 300 circuit.
The Swan Yamaha rider enters this weekend as the man in form after his double victory at Knockhill, and settled straight in at the revamped Norfolk track. Hill's best time of 1:48.866 put him half a tenth ahead of John Hopkins on the Crescent Suzuki.
But Hill admitted that he still wasn't completely happy with the set-up of the YZF-R1, and expects the performance of the machine to improve still further for the rest of the weekend.
“It’s great being back out here; it’s a great track. I was a bit on the back foot compared to the other riders as I don’t think I even did ten laps at the pre-season test, but I can’t think about that too much. The new track is cool but with the excitement of a new track you have to just let yourself build up to speed rather than try and rush in, which it is so easy to do! I knew we could be pushing at the front and we still have a few minor issues with set-up so to be fastest with that means it looks good for Sunday.”
Teammate Michael Laverty was sixth fastest and also felt there were improvements that need to be made if he is to challenge for pole position on Saturday.
“I am feeling good on the new track. It was pretty good this afternoon for us. We started aiming for a race simulation but we still had some things we needed to iron out so we scrapped that. By the end of the session we had taken a chunk of time out and we were feeling happier with the direction. This evening we will look at the data and see what improvements we can make to up the pace again for qualifying.”
With Loris Baz and James Westmoreland fourth and fifth, Yamahas filled four of the top six positions, with championship leader Shane 'Shakey' Byrne down in eighth for HM Plant Honda.
