Qualifying three

Alex Lowes 1’35.119

PJ Jacobsen 1’35.388

Samsung Honda’s Alex Lowes will start from pole position for the first MCE British Superbike race this afternoon at Oulton Park, after clocking the fastest lap of the weekend a 1’35.119.

Rapid Solicitors Kawasaki’s Shane Byrne was on provisional pole, but with one minute remaining Lowes stormed to the front of the grid. But on a cool down lap the Lincolnshire lad crashed at Shell, but was unhurt.

Tyco Suzuki’s PJ Jacobsen clinched his second BSB front row, after setting a lap time that did not place him out of the top three for the majority of the session. Milwaukee Yamaha’s James Ellison rounds off the front row with his best lap of 1’35.542.

Josh Brookes could not emulate his team-mate’s good pace and missed out on a front row start by four hundredths of a second, and heads up the second row. Brookes will be joined by Halsall Racing’s Tommy Bridewell, Buildbase BMW’s Jon Kirkham and GBmoto’s Dan Linfoot.

Rapid Solicitors Kawasaki’s Keith Farmer and Buildbase BMW’s James Westmoreland find themselves on the third row, after both riders failed to improve on their lap times and remained ninth and tenth fastest respectively.

Qualifying two

Alex Lowes 1’35.387

Josh Brookes 1’35.763

Lowes once again was the fastest rider on the track, but only one tenth of a second behind the Derby lad was Jacobsen, who had another strong qualifying session. Three tenths of seconds behind the New Yorker was his team-mate Brookes, who decided he did enough to get through after only three laps.

Kirkham narrowly made it through to Q3, after setting a lap that placed him tenth fastest, and in doing so knocked Quattro Plant’s Chris Walker into elimination places, and that is where he remained. GBmoto’s Peter Hickman and Bathams Honda Michael Rutter attempted last lap dashes but could not improve their positions, with Hickman staying twelfth fastest, with Rutter in thirteenth.

PR Racing’s Karl Harris, Milwaukee Yamaha’s Josh Waters, Padgett’s rider Jakub Smrz and Rapido Sport’s Matteo Baiocco were never in contention of progressing into the final qualifying session of the day and did not make it into the top ten quickest times.

One of the biggest shocks of the afternoon was that after having a solid Q1, Samsung Honda’s Ryuichi Kiyonari never made it out of Q2, and after only a few laps remained in the garage, ending his chances of a front row start.

Farmer was the only rider to receive a penalty, after cutting a chicane, and had to remain in the pits for a 40 second penalty, but he was able to cling on to ninth on the timesheets to go through to the final qualifying session.

ELIMINATED

Chris Walker

Peter Hickman

Michael Rutter

Karl Harris

Josh Waters

Jakub Smrz

Ryuichi Kiyonari

Matteo Baiocco

Qualifying one

Alex Lowes 1’35.770

James Ellison 1’36.184

Lowes stormed to the top of Q1  with fourteen minutes to go with a 1’35.770, knocking Byrne off the provisional pole position. Ellison was leading for the first ten minutes but ended the session in third with a 1’36.184.

It was not a good afternoon for Quattro Plant Kawasaki’s Barry Burrell as he suffered a technical problem and he was unable to get out on to the track for the 20 minute session. Two Wheel Racing’s Jenny Tinmouth experienced problems with her clutch and only managed one lap, but it was not fast enough to get her out of the drop zone.

Farmer scraped into Q2 by the skin of his teeth, and left it till his last lap to go eighteenth fastest, from nineteenth and in the process knocked Halsall Racing’s Lee Costello into elimination. Tsingtao WKbikes Performance rider Howie Mainwaring Smart had issues with his machine and only made it out for the final minute of Q1, but it was not enough as he only made it twentieth on the timesheets, and was eliminated.

Riders BMW’s Martin Jessopp, Stel Suzuki’s Aaron Zanotti and debutant BSB rider QBSD Motorsport’s Jamie Poole also failed to progress into Q1. Waters and Baiocco were hovering around the drop zone, but fortunately made it through to Q2.

ELIMINATED

Lee Costello

Howie Mainwaring Smart

Martin Jessopp

Aaron Zanotti

Jamie Poole

Jenny Tinmouth

Barry Burrell

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