Following the opening round of the 2009 ViSK.com British Superbike Championship at Brands Hatch, some questions were answered, others were posed.
On the one hand we discovered exactly how quick Sylvain Guintoli will be on a Superbike, that the Airwaves Yamaha R1 has race winning potential even without prior testing and also that this year's championship could shape up to be one of the closest yet.
However, one round doesn't define a season, so attention now turns to the second round at Oulton Park, which should provide a little more insight as to how the year will pan out.
Crucially, unlike Brands Hatch, there won't be any extended free practice sessions at Oulton Park, which threatens to work against early championship leader Guintoli in his quest to learn circuits well enough to launch a victory challenge come race day.
Not that the Worx Crescent Suzuki rider has been resting on his laurels, taking the time between races to trial the circuit on a track day, as well as get some miles under his belt driving a car. Together with the fact Tom Sykes was a double winner at Oulton for Suzuki last season, Guintoli has all the right ingredients to work through the restraints.
The biggest challenge is destined to come from the Airwaves team, who surprised themselves at Brands Hatch by surpassing initial predictions and scoring a win on their debut with the Yamaha R1.
Although Camier and James Ellison enjoyed different rates of improvement over the weekend, Airwaves managed to turn their weekend from a prolonged test session to something rather more successful, the R1 looking far better prepared than it probably was.
Even so, while Ellison has an especially good record at Oulton Park, Airwaves are playing down their hopes having shown at Brands Hatch that they are still lagging behind their rivals in terms of power. Although not so much of a problem around the short Brands Hatch circuit, the longer Oulton Park layout could prove more detrimental.
With Guintoli lacking track knowledge and Airwaves Yamaha posing a possible Achilles Heel, Honda have a good opportunity to capitalise instead – and not just HM Plant.
