Qualifying three

John Hopkins 1’29.555

Tyco Suzuki John Hopkins will start from pole for the first time this year, after a 1’29.555 was good enough to place his bike on the number one spot of the MCE British Superbike grid, for race one tomorrow at Donington Park.

The American was a tenth under lap record pace, and 0.04 seconds quicker than Buildbase BMW’s Ryuichi Kiyonari. The Japanese rider has been at the sharp end for the majority of the afternoon, and was never outside the top three times throughout the qualifying outing.

Rapid Solicitors Kawasaki’s Shane Byrne completes the front row with a 1’29.677. RAF Reserves Honda’s Peter Hickman left it till his last lap to make an impact – and he did just that, leap frog-ing the Rapid Solicitors Kawasaki of Stuart Easton to bag fourth on the grid, and heads the second row – but there was absolutely nothing separating the pair as they both lapped a 1’29.810.

Milwaukee Yamaha’s Josh Brookes was slightly off the pace in the final session but did enough round up row two, with Waters, Bridewell, Westmoreland and Linfoot completing the top ten.

Qualifying two

Ryuichi Kiyonari 1’29.423

Tommy Bridewell 1’29.892

In a repeat of Q1 it was Kiyonari who dominated the session, followed by Byrne and Bridewell, who completed  the provisional front row. Honda Racing’s development rider Julien Da Costa was on a hot lap but crashed at Goddards, but slipped out of the top ten and out of contention to fight for a front row start.

Hopkins left it quite late to make an impact, and remained in the pits for most of the session, but soared to sixth, with a 1’30.040, pushing his team-mate Josh Waters ever closer to the drop zone.

It was not a good session for the GBmoto Kawasaki garage as both riders failed to make it into Q3. Crocked James Ellison is still nursing a leg injury, but was only a tenth off the time of Chris Walker, who unusually for him was outside the top ten times.

Kirkham, Rutter and Jessopp couldn’t up their pace to get out of the elimination places, and neither could FFX Yamaha’s newest rider, Filip Backlund. The former Stock 1000 racer never made it from the bottom of the time-sheets, but it was a solid performance for the BSB debutant.

ELIMINATED

Da Costa

Muff

Kirkham

Walker

Ellison

Rutter

Jessopp

Mainwaring

Ingram

Backlund

Qualifying one

Ryuichi Kiyonari 1’29.732

John Hopkins 1’30.162

Kiyonari was the fastest rider in the opening qualifying session, with Brookes a tenth of the pace of the Japanese racer. Hopkins re-gained his previous good form from yesterday and safely made his way into Q2 after a 1’30.162.

Ingram and Jessopp were dangerously close to not progressing to Q2, but were saved by the fact that Tsingtao’s Gary Mason and Gearlink Kawasaki’s Ben Wilson couldn’t improve on their lap times.

The pair were not the only ones not to make it into the second qualifying attempt, WD-40’s Barry Burrell and Stel Suzuki’s Aaron Zanotti never made it out of the drop zone.

Junior Alstare’s Christophe Ponsson, onboard his Bimota machine never made it of the relegation spots, but he is still learning his track, after only making his debut on the circuit yesterday. Returning rider, Anvil Hire Tag Racing’s Mitchell Carr is still getting used to being out on his bike, after missing a few rounds due to a shoulder injury, and didn’t make it out of Q1, along with Lo Turco.

Wildcard rider Saudi Falcons BMW’s Abdualaziz Binladin did not have the best of starts to his qualifying campaign as he crashed at Redgate, which meant he had no chance of making it out of Q1.

ELIMINATED

Mason

Wilson

Burrell

Zanotti

Ponsson

Carr

Lo Turco

Binladin

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