Rapid Solicitors Kawasaki’s Keith Farmer clocked the fastest time in this afternoon’s MCE British Superbike free practice session, and in doing so displaced Samsung Honda’s Ryuichi Kiyonari from the top of the timesheets by one one-thousandth of a second.

The Northern Irish lad clocked his best lap of 1’49.726 just as the chequered flag appeared and went one thousandths of a second quicker than the triple champ to clinch provisional pole by the tiniest of margins.

Kiyonari did sit at the top of the timesheets for the majority of the session after five minutes, and continued to improve on his lap times. But Buildbase BMW’s James Westmoreland braved the torrential weather conditions to then go fastest with two minutes remaining, and before that Milwaukee Yamaha’s James Ellison topped the timesheets, if only for a few seconds.

Samsung Honda’s Alex Lowes jumped from sixth to fifth to third quickest with his best lap of 1’50.720, with Westmoreland falling to fourth as the session came to an end. Farmer’s teammate Shane Byrne decided to venture out on the rain soaked track with twelve minutes left of the session. It was the reigning champions’ first time out on the Leicestershire track all day and he ended the afternoon rounding off the top five with a 1’51.177.

Tyco Suzuki’s Josh Brookes was the first rider out of the garage with Rapido Sport Racing’s Matteo Baiocco quickly following suit. The Australian finished thirteenth fastest, but the Italian faired a bit better and ended the free practice in eighth with Buildbase BMW’s Jon Kirkham and Bathams Honda rider Michael Rutter rounding off the top ten, with a 1’54.412.

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