PBM Kawasaki's Shane Byrne was the fastest rider during the combined MCE British Superbike free practice sessions at his home circuit of Brands Hatch in wet conditions, and more importantly for the rider he was two tenths quicker than title rival, Milwaukee Yamaha's Josh Brookes.
Byrne lapped a 1'37.749 with current series leader Brookes residing in P3. Byrne was a little shocked to see on his pit board that he was P1 at the end of FP2 as he felt frustrated during the session as he was held up by traffic out on the circuit.
But he wasn't prepared to risk anything in the wet today as he still has his fifth BSB championship title in his sights, but he admitted that it was nice to finish the first day of track activity with the fastest rider accolade.
“The conditions this morning were obviously a lot wetter than the conditions this afternoon, but this afternoon they weren’t really dry enough to have a go on intermediates or slicks," said Byrne.
“I think it always boils down to who’s prepared to risk the most in conditions like that and I certainly wasn’t up for risking it. I got frustrated at the end because I got stuck in a little bit of traffic that I didn’t seem to be able to get out of and I got one lap on the end on my own and that was enough to go fastest, so, it was a little bit of a surprise. But that said, it’s nice to see P1 at the end of a session for a change”
