Hickman hoping for better luck

Last time out Hickman suffered from the problems that have haunted him throughout the season but in the final race of the Snetterton round the bike did appear to handle much better.

Unfortunately a technical problem with the Global Robots Smiths Racing BMW caused a retirement on lap 10.

Hickman said: “Overall it feels like we’ve been battling bike set-up, but we have made progress and every time I’ve gone out on the bike we have been able to take a step forward.

“It’s definitely been frustrating but everyone has worked tirelessly and the team has really progressed the chassis a lot.

“Hopefully some of the things that we have learnt (at Snetterton) can be transferred to Silverstone and we can hit the ground running.”

The timetable for the three superbike races at Silverstone is: Friday - free practice 3.30pm. Saturday - free practice 10.30am, qualifying 1.15pm, 25 lap race 4.30pm. Sunday - warm up 9.15pm, 30 lap race 12.15pm, 30 lap race 4.30pm.

While the team has been checking the bike Hickman has been busy at the Le Mans 24-hour World Endurance race.

He was called up at short notice to become the reserve rider for the BMW Motorrad World Endurance Team last weekend and joined regular riders Kenny Foray, Ilya Mikhalchik and Markus Reiterberger.

Although Hickman did not actually take part in the race he did contribute to the team as he was out in the practice and qualifying sessions and topped the table in his qualifying session.

Mikhalchik crashed out with 12 minutes to go.