Rapid Solicitors Kawasaki’s Shane Byrne was the fastest rider in the second MCE British Superbike free practice session at Knockhill this afternoon, after a 48.243. Buildbase BMW's Ryuuchi Kiyonari couldn’t find that extra pace to better his earlier time and had to settle for second quickest - two tenths off the lap set by Byrne.

Milwaukee Yamaha’s Josh Brookes rounded off the top three, and was never able to catch up with the former triple champion pairing of Byrne and Kiyo. He ended the afternoon in third with a 48.536, followed closely by Rapid Solicitors Kawasaki’s Stuart Easton and Milwaukee Yamaha’s Tommy Bridewell – who completed the top five.

Initially it was Byrne who was the first rider to lap inside the 48s bracket this afternoon, and a 48.555 on his fourth lap placed him on provisional pole after six minutes, followed by Kiyonari and Brookes. But the fastest rider in the opening free practice, Kiyo was not holding back and a 45.507 put paid to the lap set by Byrne, and the BMW racer edged on ahead by 0.004 seconds – on the 30 minute mark.

With only 20 minutes of track time available to the riders Millsport Ducati’s Jakub Smrz crashed at Clark but was unhurt, while 12th fastest. But by the end of the session the Czech Republic rider slipped down to 14th after he was unable to go back out on the bike for the rest of the free practice session.

Smrz was not the only rider to take a tumble, FFX Yamaha’s Ian Hutchinson fell at Taylors, but was uninjured with only ten minutes of the free practice remaining.

On the 11 minute mark Byrne lapped a 48.456 on his 27th rotation of the Scottish circuit going 0.04 seconds faster than Kiyo to, again edge on ahead and re-gain his spot on the top of the timesheets - smashing his lap record by two tenths of a second.

Tyco Suzuki’s John Hopkins seemed to have a burst of energy in the final five minutes, as he went from eighth to fourth with a 48.805, teetering ever closer to the top three and a provisional front row.

But that was only to last two seconds as Milwaukee Yamaha’s Tommy Bridewell went a tenth faster than the American, pulling Hopkins back down to fifth. By the time the 45 minutes were up Hopkins dropped back to sixth, with Bathams Michael Rutter in seventh on the timesheets.

Local rider, Stuart Easton was obviously feeling comfortable out on his home track as his best lap of 48.652 pushed his bike to fourth, knocking Bridewell back down to fifth, with only two minutes left –  just as drops of rain started to fall in sector one. GBmoto Kawasaki’s Chris Walker, Buildbase BMW’s James Westmoreland and GBMoto’s James Ellison rounded up the top ten.

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