Lee Jackson topped the final Bennetts British Superbike Championship free practice session at a cool Donington Park on Saturday morning, the FS-3 Racing Kawasaki rider ending the twenty minute session just 0.020s clear of Jason O’Halloran with Peter Hickman taking third.
With a track temperature of just 10 degrees, Hickman set the pace at the beginning of the session with a 1’31.842 on the FHO Racing BMW putting him 0.089s clear of Jackson’s team-mate Rory Skinner but that soon changed with Honda’s Glenn Irwin jumping to the top of the leaderboard with a 1’30.500.
Tommy Bridewell, Jackson, Kyle Ryde and Ryo Mizuno were also below the 1’31 barrier with Hickman soon joining them on his third flying lap and it was then Jackson’s turn to go quickest with a 1’30.046.
Despite the cool temperatures, the lap times were only just over a second slower than Friday’s best laps and Irwin became the first to dip into the 1’29’s with a lap of 1’29’883 knocking Jackson off the top spot.
At the halfway point the running order was Irwin, Jackson, Christian Iddon, Ryde, Bridewell and Mizuno with Jackson now also in the 1’29’s and only 0.095s adrift of Irwin. Championship leader Tarran Mackenzie, meanwhile, remained in the pits.
Hickman moved back into third with eight minutes to go as just half a second covered the top eight riders, O’Halloran also making progress as he went from 11th to fifth on the McAMS Yamaha.
With five minutes left, Hickman posted a 1’29.594 which saw him replace Irwin at the top of the timesheets with Jackson now in third ahead of O’Halloran, Iddon and Josh Brookes on the second VisionTrack Ducati.
Irwin then cut the gap to 0.158s with O’Halloran moving ahead of Jackson to take third and the Australian’s pace saw him go quickest with two minutes to go, a 1’29.583 putting him 0.011s quicker than Hickman.
However, a late lap from Jackson saw him be the one to claim the number one spot with O’Halloran and Hickman just fractions behind.
Irwin took fourth from Brookes and Iddon, the top six riders all lapping in the 1’29’s, with Ryde, Bridewell, Mizuno and Andrew Irwin completing the top ten.
