Lower grip on the opening day of practice in Thailand left lap times a little slower than expected, but Pata Yamaha’s Sylvain Guintoli is sure the surface is getting rubbered in after a day of track action: “The main area is the new tarmac places and it’s very smooth, they’ve done a great job with the way it’s made but I think it’s also very new and it needed some rubber. So it’s getting better. The lap times are coming down so we’re on the way.”

The 2014 WorldSBK Champion was happy with his day’s work, and happy to find himself the closest man to Michael Van Der Mark at the top of the timesheets.

“With conditions like this you can take a bit of a gamble and I know Michael from last year, he’s always up for a gamble,” Guintoli said of his ex-teammate. “He’s young and fearless. He did great, but I´m happy with the work we’ve done and happy with the pace we’ve got.”

The Frenchman topped Friday in Phillip Island on the new YZF R1 and is buoyed again by practice times in Thailand, sure there’s still more to find before the lights go out for Race 1.

“I think we’ve still got margin for improvement. We’ve made some big steps during this session and the rhythm was really interesting. We mustn’t forget that for us, every session is still a learning process.”

After returning to WorldSBK and immediately finding the YZF R1 on the pace of the Top 5, Yamaha will be hoping to take another step forward in the first race of the weekend tomorrow, with the lights set to go out at 4pm local time (9am GMT).