Rapid Solicitors Kawasaki’s Shane Byrne was never off the top of the MCE British Superbike timesheets during the opening free practice session at Brands Hatch.

The local lad dominated from the start and put in a 1’26.847 to secure his position as the fastest rider this morning, and the triple champ continued to improve. With less than five minutes remaining Byrne went four tenths of a second quicker to clock his best lap of 1’26.457.

Samsung Honda’s Alex Lowes used his last and nineteenth lap to push his way from third to second quickest, just as the chequered flag appeared, with a 1’26.913, and Byrne and the Lincolnshire racer were the only riders to lap in the 1’26’s in this morning’s session.

But Lowes’ fastest lap meant that Buildbase BMW’s James Westmoreland was demoted to third, after putting in a solid performance and setting some consistently quick times. With less than a minute to go Westmoreland clocked a 1’27.150 which was enough to put him second fastest on the timesheets, but it only lasted for a few seconds as Lowes went 0.1 seconds quicker.

Milwaukee Yamaha’s James Ellison was never out of the top five quickest times throughout the 45 minute session, followed by veteran racer Quattro Plant’s Chris Walker, who rounded off the top five. Samsung Honda’s Ryuichi Kiyonari ended the morning sixth fastest with a 1’27.528 lap, followed by Tyco Suzuki’s Josh Brookes and Padgett’s rider Jakub Smrz.

Buildbase BMW’s Jon Kirkham suffered a technical issue at the start of the session after he stopped at Graham Hill, but still managed to set the ninth fastest time, with GBmoto’s Dan Linfoot putting in a 1’27.879, that placed him just inside the top ten times. There was one faller, PR Racing’s Karl Harris crashed at Stirlings, but was unhurt. But Tyco Suzuki’s PJ Jacobsen failed to make it out of his garage, as it appeared he had a technical problem with his bike.

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