Be Wiser Ducati’s Shane Byrne has been up the sharp end all race weekend and even set the fastest ever MCE British Superbike lap around the Brands Hatch track, during the final free practice session.
He was one of the favourites to blast his Panigale straight into the number one spot on the starting grid, but he admitted that he made ‘too many mistakes’ during his Superpole lap and missed out on pole. But even though he was disappointed by his 1’25.494 time he is content that he made it on to the front row.
This morning in FP3 Byrne clocked a 1’24.838 and also topped Q1 and Q2 at his local track, but he was pipped to the post by one tenth of a second by Quattro Plant Kawasaki’s Luke Mossey.
“I saw Jason had gone down and he had been fast. I wanted to push the boat out a bit and produce something special in Superpole but I ended up making far too many mistakes. I got a really good run onto the start and finish straight to start the lap but then ran wide at Paddock Hill and then again at Druids,” said Byrne at the circuit.
“I told myself to keep calm as there was still plenty of time to pull the lost time back but then I ran wide at Surtees too. It wasn’t a great lap at all and I’m a bit disappointed but happy to be on the front row. The whole team’s worked so hard and I’ll try to get a good start and ride my own race tomorrow. It’s going to be difficult, though, as there are a few riders who look to have a similar pace and race wins don’t come easy.”