Swan Yamaha's injured Tommy Hill has somehow managed to set the fastest time in the second British Superbike free practice session at Croft this afternoon despite riding with a badly injured left shoulder and only passing a fitness test earlier this morning.
Hill snatched the lead from Rapid Ducati's Michael Rutter with his final lap of the dry session, setting a 1'20.763 which was only 0.042s quicker than the veteran while team-mate Michael Laverty, fastest in the damp this morning, was the same distance back in third place.
MSS Kawasaki's Stuart Easton had parked himself in third place before Hill's lap demoted him to fourth but the Scottish rider is only a tenth of a second in arrears on a 1'20.932 while Loris Baz, who made his debut here last year, is fifth and only another tenth further back.
John Hopkins, on the Samsung Suzuki, is sixth with another Yamaha in the shape of Motorpoint's James Westmoreland sitting in seventh and just shy of half a second off the pace. A late charge from Josh Brookes put him in eighth which shuffled Shane Byrne down to ninth with Tyco Honda's Peter Hickman continuing his form from this morning in tenth.
WFR Honda's Alex Lowes heads the Evo field and is 11th overall just eight-tenths in arrears, followed by Simon Andrews (14th overall) on the PR Kawasaki and Lowes' team-mate Glen Richards (16th overall). Third WFR man Graeme Gowland has withdrawn after free practice one as his broken wrist is giving him too much pain to continue.
