Rapid Solicitors Kawasaki’s Shane Byrne clinched his seventh MCE British Superbike win of the season after out-pacing Samsung Honda’s Alex Lowes this afternoon at Snetterton.

Byrne led from the start and was unbeatable throughout the sixteen laps. In the early stages he held off charges from Tyco Suzuki’s Josh Brookes. The Aussie was flying high in second and was close enough to battle with Byrne for his first win of the season, but on the tenth lap Brookes went wide and ended up on the grass at Brundle, meaning Lowes moved to second and the Northern Ireland resident had to settle for third. Brookes was only two seconds behind the leading riders, but on the final lap found himself six seconds adrift and was never in contention again to challenge for the victory.

On the penultimate lap Lowes was closing in on the reigning champ, but he was denied his first double win of the season, and had to settle for the second spot on the podium, and finished the day a quarter of a second behind the race winner.

Milwaukee Yamaha’s James Ellison had a solid start, and was in third but from the fourth lap fell to seventh and then continued to drop back to as low as fifteenth. The Cumbrian experienced a technical glitch with his bike, but when the chequered flag appeared the rider was able to pass Bathams Honda’s Tommy Bridewell and Rapido Sport’s Matteo Baiocco to end the day in ninth.

Samsung Honda’s Ryuichi Kiyonari finished the race in fourth, but throughout the race was locked in a battle with Buildbase BMW’s James Westmoreland, with the lead changing numerous times between the two riders. But the triple champ pushed ahead and finished two places behind his team-mate with Westmoreland rounding off the top five.

Quattro Plant’s Chris Walker recovered from his battery issues that he had in race one, and finished in sixth. Milwaukee Yamaha’s Josh Waters claimed his best result of the season so far, ending the race in seventh, followed closely by GBmoto’s Dan Linfoot.

There was a yellow flag on only the first lap after a crash at Montreal involving Buildbase BMW’s Jon Kirkham and Doodson Motorsport rider Robbin Harms. Both riders were not seriously hurt after Kirkham high sided, with the Danish rider, unfortunately getting tangled up with the crashing Brit.

Quattro Plant’s Danny Buchan fwll at Murrays on lap seven, after running wide and crashing into the safety barriers. MH Kawasaki’s Howie Mainwaring Smart retired on lap ten with a technical issue, and Padgett’s Jakub Smrz also failed to finish the race, after crashing out at Murrays.

There were notable absentees even before the race started. Bathams Honda’s Michael Rutter had an engine problem in race one, and the issue was not rectified in time for the final outing of the day. Riders BMW’s Martin Jessopp is still recovering from a coccyx injury that he sustained back at Knockhill and even though he attempted race one he was in too much pain to compete in race two.

Click here for times