Yakhnich Yamaha rider Sam Lowes waited until the final minutes of the World Supersport qualifying practice session to make an impact and ended up clocking the fastest lap out on a wet Donington circuit, with a time of 1’43.642.
The Lincolnshire rider went top of the time sheets on his second lap, overtaking rival, MAHI Racing’s Kenan Sofuoglu to bag the provisional pole position. The Turkish rider was not going to let Lowes take the top spot that easily and with three minutes remaining the current champ went quicker with a time of 1’44.758, but Lowes was not too far behind and on his third lap went top once again.
The Derby resident continued to improve until the chequered flag appeared and on his final and fourth lap managed to go faster with a time of 1’43.642, a second quicker than Sofuoglu. Suriano Racing’s Matthew Scholtz last lap dash attempt was not in vain as he propelled himself to a provisional front row position with a 1’45.294 lap, followed closely by Prorace’s Gabor Talmacsi.
It was an Irish and British battle to finish in the top five fastest lap times, with Rivamoto’s Jack Kennedy, DMC Kawasaki’s Kev Coghlan and ParkinGO MV rider Christian Iddon all setting equally fast times. It was the Dubliner, Kennedy who ended the afternoon session in fifth with a time of 1’45.718, but Iddon was not far behind with a 1’45.770 lap.
Scottish rider Coghlan did claw his way up to second with twenty minutes to go in the qualifying practice, but he could not improve and finished just behind fellow Brit, Iddon in seventh, clocking a lap time of 1’45.873.
It was not a great session for the wild card entries. Motorpoint British Supersport racer Smiths Triumph’s Glen Richards crashed on his first lap at Schwantz, in the wet conditions. He did eventually make it back out on the track, but failed to set a qualifying time. Richards was not the only rider to crash, fellow British Supersport racer RLR Motorsports Sam Hornsey fell at Coppice, and could only manage a time of 1’57.397. Richards’s team-mate and fellow Aussie Billy McConnell had a more successful time out on the track, and completed the session in eighteenth with a time of 1’47.841.
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