TRISTAN IS AIMING TO MOVE FORWARD; MOTORSPORT By Ben Baker.

THE only way is up for Tristan Palmer following an encouraging MCE Insurance British Superbike round five outing at Knockhill.

Palmer hadn't had much to shout about ahead of a trip to Scotland, with just one championship point to his name from the first race at Snetterton in round four.

But following some testing at the Silverstone 200, the GBmoto Honda rider headed to Knockhill in high spirits and it showed as he finished free practice an impressive fifth.

Palmer ensured he carried his good mood over into the race as finishes of 13th and 12th gave him seven championship points, blowing his previous best out of the water.

And after turning his fortunes around in style, Palmer was left toasting the fact-finding mission that was the Silverstone 200.

"I had been struggling a bit with the bike all season really," he said.

"We were not getting the results we would have wanted but we are getting slowly better each time but still not where we want to be.

"At Silverstone we found something with the bike which was a lot of bother, something was wrong with the electronics.

"But after Silverstone we now know what the problem is and it was a big problem so we should get better now. We now know what the problems are so we can get better. Not knowing what was wrong with it was frustrating but now we do we can fix it and start getting better all the time."

Despite a much-improved outing at Knockhill, Palmer admits he won't be satisfied until he finds his way into a top-ten position. But after making the long journey to Scotland a worthwhile one, Palmer believes this goal could be achieved sooner rather than later.

"I think we can start pushing for the top ten now we have sorted the bike out," he added.

"We have made a few big changes with the electronics and now have a bit more power and we are more positive with it now.

"Hopefully this means we can kickstart our season and get it moving forward now."

* British Eurosport is the Home of Bikes, showing all MotoGP, World Superbike and British Superbike races on Sky channels 410 and 411 and Virgin Media channels 521 and 525 as well as eurosportplayer.co.uk

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LINE ASTERN: Tristan Palmer heads GBmoto Racing Honda team-mate Luke Quigley at Knockhill.