Samsung Honda’s Alex Lowes dominated the final MCE British Superbike free practice session at Cadwell Park, and stormed to the top of the timesheets in the process.
The Lincolnshire rider went fastest on only his first lap with a 1’28.577, followed by Rapid Solicitors Kawasaki’s Shane Byrne. But then the triple champ went one better and clocked a 1’27.777 with over 30 minutes of the session remaining. Byrne was unable to go quicker, and with twenty minutes left Lowes went even faster to set a 1’27.324, and no other rider was able to match the pace of Lowes during the rather foggy free practice.
Tyco Suzuki’s Josh Brookes was never far off the pace of the Honda and Kawasaki and was one tenths of a second slower than Byrne to finish the session on a provisional front row. Milwaukee Yamaha’s James Ellison with minutes left went from the mid pack to third, but then dropped to fourth fastest when the chequered flag appeared, and just managed to lap in the 1’27’s.
Brookes’ team-mate PJ Jacobsen retained his good form from yesterday and even though he was unable to lap in the 1’27’s still clocked the fifth quickest time followed by Halsall Racing’s Tommy Bridewell.
GBmoto’s Peter Hickman improved his race pace to go seventh on the timesheets. Samsung Honda’s Ryuichi Kiyonari found himself in a BMW sandwich with Buildbase team-mates Jon Kirkham in eighth and James Westmoreland rounding off the top ten, with the Japanese rider ninth quickest.
There was only one faller out on the Lincolnshire circuit, and that was GBmoto’s Dan Linfoot who crashed at Mansfield corner but was unhurt. Rapido Sport’s Matteo Baiocco suffered a technical problem with 60 seconds remaining at Charles.