Yoshimura SERT Motul’s Gregg Black spent the winter break training in the gym, cycling, riding flat track and motocross. He spent a few days on his personal bike at Cartagena to get back up to speed, before travelling to the Almeria Circuit in Spain for tyre testing with Bridgestone.

“I’m happy to be back on the factory bike and to be with most of the Yoshimura SERT Motul team. It’s been a long break since Most. It’s good to get together to ask questions and see if we still know how to ride after such a long time … ! It’s a shame the Japanese guys aren’t here but I’m looking forward to meeting up with them at Le Mans.

“We’ve already started out quite fast and we can see the potential of the bike is good. The Bridgestone tyres are good – we managed a 35.2 which is over three seconds faster than in previous years.

“It was a brilliant feeling to be a double World Championship winner and a great team effort to get the title in 2021. It’s always hard work to get the second one and I think the third one will be even harder, especially with all the teams doing a lot of work. But we can already see, from this test, that we have quite a good performance.

“I’m really pleased with the way we’re going forward and think we can be quite confident about the year ahead. I can’t wait to get back out riding at Le Mans with the new set-up.”