HM Plant Honda's Shane Byrne has topped the British Superbike first free practice at Thruxton this morning with a lap set early on in the session and was enough to fend off late charges by both Tommy Hill and John Hopkins.
Byrne lapped in 1'16.249 which stood for a majority of the 50 minutes as Samsung Suzuki man Hopkins went round in 1'16.703 with only three minutes left on the clock to take second place. That lasted for a lap as Hill's Swan Yamaha deposed him with a 1'16.649 on his last circulation.
As a result, Tyco Honda's Peter Hickman dropped down to fourth fastest with his 1'16.764 but it was enough to stay ahead of Ryuichi Kiyonari who is a less than a tenth of a second slower in fifth. Martin Jessopp is the first of the Ducatis in sixth with team-mate Michael Rutter one one-thousandth of a second behind.
Jentin Honda's Steve Brogan has started the weekend strongly in eighth and only three-quarters of a second in arrears with James Westmoreland and Josh Brookes rounding out the top ten.
Simon Andrews is the fastest Evo runner in 17th with a returning Graeme Gowland in second (19th overall) and WFR Honda team-mate Glen Richards one place behind.
