For the first time since 2019, TT racing took place on the Isle of Man as the first six-lap Superbike contest of the week got proceedings underway.
Hickman dominated the race on his all-new BMW M1000RR, the Briton claiming his sixth TT win by 39.1 seconds from DAO Racing’s Dean Harrison.
Around 90 minutes before the race, a warm-up lap took place, which was installed into the schedule for 2022 as part of a raft of safety improvements introduced for this year.
Hickman, who completed a lap on his Superstock bike, says this helped him to get his eye in ahead of the Superbike race – allowing him to take the lead instantly on the first lap on the run to the first sector split at Glen Helen.
“The bike was absolutely the same as it was throughout practice, which was nice,” Hickman said after the race.
“It’s just a nice bike to ride, just really easier, which makes my life easier.
“I think the warm-up lap helped me get going a bit.
“But the first lap I was really surprised to have a three-second gap straight away pretty much, so it wasn’t what I expected but it was a nice surprise.”
Starting 10th on the road, Hickman had several riders to clear on his charge through the field and says his sizeable advantage over second place gave him “a buffer” to safely pass without incident.
“It was absolutely fine because I had a buffer,” he said of the traffic.
“If I was only one or two seconds ahead of second place, then it would have been a different story.
“But as it was, I had like 13 or 14 seconds at the time, so I could take a sector to pass them.
“So, it was not so much of a problem. It was fine, just took my time and passed them where it was nice and easy.”
Hickman ran out of fuel in Thursday evening’s practice as he did his first push for two straight laps to simulate a stint in the Superbike race before the first of two pitstops.
But Hickman – who had numerous issues with the last version of the S1000RR BMW in 2019 which ultimately forced him to run a Superstock engine in his Superbike – says there was no concerns of a repeat in Saturday’s race.
“So basically, that was the first two laps we’d done on the bike, so the best way of doing it, we always run with the maximum amount of power, the best engine braking strategy - and all the rest of it - as we can run to see if we can make two laps,” he explained when asked about Thursday’s issue.
“And obviously we didn’t make two laps, so we then know how much more fuel we need to make the end of the two laps.
“So, we make some compromises here and there, take some power out, change the engine braking strategy.
“We found loads – we only needed 0.6 of a litre, 0.3 per lap, it’s not a lot.
“The boys found about 0.8s by just trimming the electronics, so I didn’t have to do anything.”
