Airwaves Yamaha's Leon Camier has set the fastest time the first British Superbike free practice at Knockhill this afternoon just head of local rider Stuart Easton on the Hydrex Honda.

The pair swapped quickest laps at the top of the timesheet for a majority of the 50-minute session, with Camier lapping at 49.492s and Easton less than one one-hundredth of a second slowe.

Camier's team-mate James Ellison nipped into third place with his final flying lap of 49.811 which demoted MSS Colchester Kawasaki's Simon Andrews to the outside of a theoretical front row.
HM Plant Honda's Josh Brookes, who has never seen this circuit before, was fifth quickest with a 49.893 lap. Motorpoint Yamaha's Chris Walker was next in line and the last of the riders inside the 49s bracket. Glen Richards, who was fastest early on, is seventh with a late-charging Ian Lowry eighth.

Laid-back Aussie Richards went quickest with five minutes of the session gone, posting a 50.388 before Camier started his first run of laps, dropping to 50.206, then 49.931 followed by a 49.767 and a 49.687 before pitting in to make some changes.

Easton made his run with ten minutes gone, dropping to a 49.931 on only his fifth lap on new K-Tech forks then following it up with 49.781 as team-mate Karl Harris circulated in third, just less than a second slower.

Walker popped into third place with a 50.191 but was immediately demoted by Harris one lap later. Easton finally hit the top of the sheets on the half hour, lapping first at 49.638 and then 49.570 with Richards and Brookes swapping times for third fastest.

After a 15-minute stop in the pits, Camier went back to second quickest with a 49.662 then set the quickest time of the session with 18 minutes left to go.

Andrews leapt into third place with 11 minutes left, lapping at 49.974 and followed it up with 49.830, which was good enough until Ellison, who had been languishing outside the top ten, put in a fractionally quicker lap with one minute remaining.

Rutter crashed at the hairpin with a couple of minutes to go but was unhurt.
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