Ryan Vickers maintained his strong run of form to lead the way after Friday free practice ahead of Round 6 for the 2023 British Superbike Championship [BSB] at Brands Hatch.

The LAMI OMG Yamaha rider sprung to the top of the timesheets towards the latter stages of the day's second session with a 1m 25.138secs effort.

It was enough to displace BSB points' leader Tommy Bridewell, the BeerMonster Ducati rider - who heads up the overall standings by 25 points from team-mate Glenn Irwin - settling for second best, less than a tenth adrift of Vickers.

In a closely-matched session, Jason O'Halloran was just 0.017secs adrift in third on the McAMS Yamaha, while fourth for Danny Kent on the Lovell Kent Honda was just another 0.015secs further adrift in fourth.

FP1 pace setter Josh Brookes on the FHO BMW M 1000 RR and Lee Jackson's FS-3 Kawasaki made it five manufacturers inside the top six positions, followed by Christian Iddon (Oxford Products Ducati), the returning Danny Buchan (SYNETIQ BMW), Peter Hickman (FHO BMW) and Leon Haslam - fresh from his WorldSBK outing with ROKiT BMW - completed the top ten.

Just outside the top ten but making it through to Q2 regardless were Glenn Irwin and Kyle Ryde, the BSB title contenders nudging out Luke Mossey and Charlie Nesbitt.