Rapid Solicitors Kawasaki’s Shane Byrne topped the time-sheets for the final MCE British Superbike free practice session of the day at Knockhill, with a 48.774 lap.
The current champ took advantage of the fact that Samsung Honda’s Alex Lowes crashed out, unhurt at the Hairpin with just over five minutes of the session remaining. The Lincolnshire rider was the fastest out on the Scottish circuit with a 48.870 lap, with only 0.001s separating Lowes and Byrne, with less than ten minutes to go. But with the Honda man out of the picture Byrne was able to go one better to clock the quickest time.
Tyco Suzuki’s Josh Brookes was able to improve on his time from the earlier practice session, but even after completing 27 laps was not able to find the pace to break into the 48 second times and had to settle for his fastest time of 49.338.
GBmoto’s Peter Hickman had another solid practice session and was never far off the pace of Brookes, but was just marginally slower than the Aussie with a 49.403, meaning he just missed out on a top three fastest lap times.
Buildbase BMW’s James Westmoreland rounded off the top five with his time of 49.525. Samsung Honda’s Ryuichi Kiyonari could not emulate his previous good form from this morning’s practice session, but did manage to make it inside the top ten quickest times, and when the chequered flag came down was able to set the sixth fastest time of 49.626.
Returning GBmoto rider Dan Linfoot was not able to go as fast as team-mate and gym partner Peter Hickman, and had to settle for seventh in the time-sheets, followed by Padgett’s Honda’s Jakub Smrz, MH Kawasaki’s Howie Mainwaring Smart, with Tyco Suzuki’s American rider PJ Jacobsen rounding off the top ten.
The final free practice session of the day with not without some drama. The 45 minute session was red flagged not once, but twice with all the incidents happening at the Hairpin. Rapid Solicitors Kawasaki’s Keith Farmer succumbed twice to that section of the track, but was not injured. Bathams Honda rider Michael Rutter experienced a technical problem at the Hairpin seconds after Farmer fell for the second time, causing the session to be red flagged for the final time with six minutes remaining. But the riders were able to go out on the circuit for the final minutes.
The second free practice was red flagged the first time because Ridersmotorcyles BMW rider Martin Jessopp crashed at the Hairpin on his fourth lap, which resulted in the rider having to go to hospital to check for a possible back injury.
