Synetiq BMW’s Danny Buchan continued at Brands Hatch where he left off at the Knockhill Bennetts British Superbike round, topping the Friday timesheets by less than a tenth of a second from championship leader Christian Iddon.
Buchan set 1’25.382 - a second off the lap record - with a few minute left to run and it proved too high a hurdle for the pack as this morning’s fastest man Jason O’Halloran had to settle for third.
Reigning champion Josh Brookes, who had a bike problem this morning, missed an automatic qualifying two slot and will have to take part in qualifying one tomorrow.
The top 12 riders progress directly into tomorrow’s Q2 session and Buchan continued to build momentum throughout the day at his local circuit as he snatched the leading position from Iddon in the closing moments.
The VisionTrack Ducati rider had moved ahead in the final ten minutes when he upped the pace to nudge O'Halloran down the order; the McAMS Yamaha rider had been leading the way for a chunk of the session.
His teammate Tarran Mackenzie was fourth despite his small crash earlier this morning, but a resurgent Glenn Irwin stormed into fifth for Honda Racing in the closing stages to push FS-3 Kawasaki's Lee Jackson back into sixth.
Gino Rea had held a position inside the top ten for the majority of the session and he was seventh, narrowly ahead of the second Synetiq BMW of Andrew Irwin.
Peter Hickman and Bradley Ray completed the top ten with Tommy Bridewell and Kyle Ryde the final riders to make the cut for the qualifying two.
