Swan Yamaha's Tommy Hill continues to set the British Superbike free practice pace at Brands Hatch this afternoon becoming the second man to go under the 46s barrier after Shane Byrne managed it in much warmer conditions yesterday.
Hill went round in 45.979, compared to Byrne's 45.954 in the second test session, today to snatch top spot but was pushed hard by title challenger Michael Laverty, whose fastest lap came late on and was less than a tenth of a second slower than the Surrey man.
WFR Honda man Graeme Gowland recovered from his end-over-end crash yesterday to take third place on a 46.119 while Ian Lowry, on the Padgett's Honda is repaying the faith his team has in him by bagging fourth spot and only a quarter of a second in arrears. Byrne was fifth with Barry Burrell sixth but the Buildbase BMW man has caused his team some work after a big crash at Graham Hill Bend wrecked his S1000RR and brought out the red flag. Burrell was unhurt but his bike was laying in the middle of the track.
Veteran Chris Walker continues his run of form, putting the Primo Kawasaki in eighth while Dan Linfoot followed him for ninth. The pair have been setting similar times all day and let's hope we don't have a return to the antics of last season. Stuart Easton, who is limiting the number of laps he is putting in before qualifying, rounded out the top ten and is less than half a second off the pace.
Tyco Suzuki's Josh Brookes is in 11th, one place ahead of Jon Kirkham while James Westmoreland baged 13th place. Alastair Seeley and Michael Rutter round out the top 15. Noriyuki Haga was 17th.
