Relentless Suzuki by TAS Racing had a tough opening day at the British Superbike Championship first round at Brands Hatch as Josh Brookes suffered several minor problems in BSB Qualifying and Alastair Seeley crashed out in the first of the Easter weekend's two Supersport races challenging for the lead.

Josh Brookes:

"I'm disappointed with qualifying but I don't want to make excuses. In my opinion we're not just quite there yet and qualifying wasn't a good showing. We made a few changes and I've a fair idea what the problem was, but as I say, I'm not going to make any excuses. I'm trying to stay upbeat as being annoyed is not going to help the situation. We will make a few changes for morning warm-up and see where we can improve."

Alastair Seeley:

"I was catching Ben Wilson when I lost the front, so it's good to be getting two bites at the cherry this weekend. The new GSX-R600 really felt great up to that point; it's just a matter of sussing out what tyres to be using for tomorrow in this heat. I suppose it's all down to rider preference. I'm okay and the bike's not too bad after the crash, so we'll reload for tomorrow and go chasing a podium."

Philip Neill - Team Manager:

"Today was a big disappointment, there's no hiding that. We're taking the positives as we've spent most of the weekend on the back foot after Josh had a small crash and an electronic problem also cost us a whole session. It's been a baptism of fire but we've been here before at Brands so no one is panicking. We have the pace on a race tyre and while it's not an ideal grid position, if Josh can find a bit of consistency through the whole lap, we can come away with something from the weekend.

"In the Supersport race we felt Alastair had a good set-up and tyre choice. The plan was to stay in the hunt early on and make his move towards the end, but unfortunately he made a small mistake. We'll get back up and try again tomorrow. What I would say is he's got to be able to run at this pace and not crash to be in the Championship race.

"Guy Martin has made steady progression and the objective was to come here so he could gain as much knowledge as possible with the GSX-R1000 Superbike, and he's doing that. He has been going faster with every session and that's what we expected he would do. He's competitive and would like to be further up the grid but his lap time is respectable."

Superbike Qualifying Positions:

Josh Brookes - Row 3 [13th]
Guy Martin - Row 7 [27th]