Swan Yamaha's Tommy Hill picked up where he left off this morning and has set the fastest time in this afternoon's second British Superbike free practice session at Knockhill but he now has youngster Loris Baz and ex-MotoGP rider John Hopkins for company.
In another wet-but-no-longer-pissing-down session, Hill was the only rider to go under the 53s barrier with a 52.810 while Frenchman Baz lapped just three-tenths slower than the Lingfield man. Hopkins tested at the track last week and is just another 0.154s further back while Michael Laverty, on the sister Swan bike, is fourth on a 53.394.
The Irishman was second fastest this morning on a 53.576 so managed to go fractionally faster while Shane Byrne, third earlier, dropped to fifth but also went four tenths faster.
Relentless Suzuki's Josh Brookes was a big mover in the second outing, jumping from 14th up to sixth place and is now only three-quarters of a second off the pace while his team-mate from last year, Ryuichi Kiyonari, is seventh. MSS Kawasaki's Gary Mason, never a fan of the wet, is eighth with his 2010 team-mate Simon Andrews, now on an Evo bike, in ninth. Samsung Suzuki man Jon Kirkham, who crashed unhurt, rounds out the top ten and is 1.1s in arrears.
The second works Kawasaki of Alex Lowes is in 11th place and he has Dab Linfoot and Chris Walker, together again, for company. Michael Rutter is uncharacteristically slow for these conditions in 14th while Glen Richards is 15th and the second Evo man. Scott Smart's Moto Rapido Ducati is third in the Evo standings.
