Milwaukee Yamaha’s Josh Brookes set a 1’26.565 in the second MCE British Superbike free practice session, at the Brands Hatch GP circuit this afternoon, cementing his place at the top of the timesheets. The Northern Ireland based rider went two tenths quicker than the Rapid Solicitors backed Kawasaki of Shane Byrne to edge ahead of the triple-champ, during the dying minutes of the outing.
The session was red flagged after three minutes after Bathams BMW’s Michael Rutter took a tumble at Hawthorns Bend. He was declared OK at the track side and FP2 soon got back underway again.
After ten minutes Byrne was already heading the timesheets and had knocked off a tenth from the best time lapped by GBmoto Kawasaki’s James Ellison from FP1 – with a 1’26.818. On the halfway mark Byrne was being trailed by Brookes, Buildbase BMW’s Ryuichi Kiyonari and GBmoto Kawasaki’s Chris Walker, but at that point none of them could reach the dizzy heights of the 1’26’s.
With less than five minutes left to the final session of the day GBmoto Kawasaki’s James Ellison out-paced Kiyo to go third on the timing screens, but further up the field Brookes was edging ever closer to the triple-champ, and a 1’26.663 firmly put him as the fastest rider out on track.
At the flag the Bringelly rider kept improving and a last lap dash certainly paid off and a quick 1’26.565 was more than enough to earn his place at the top of the FP2 timesheets. Byrne was unable to improve on his 1’26.818 and was 0.2 seconds off the pace set by the Yamaha man.
Ellison completed the final session of the day in third, followed by Kiyonari and Tyco Suzuki’s John Hopkins – who appears to have returned to form today to round up the top five. Quattro Plant Kawasaki’s Dan Linfoot and Millsport Ducati’s Jakub Smrz finished just inside the top ten.
