Kyle Ryde struck the first psychological salvo ahead of the 2024 Bennetts British Superbike Championship [BSB] season after improving his benchmark lap on the final day to top the overall official pre-season testing timesheets at Donington Park.

Riding the factory nominated OMG GRILLA Yamaha R1, Ryde improved upon his Saturday best of 1m 28.595secs during the final session of the weekend.

Clocking 1m 27.650secs, Ryde enjoyed a comfortable margin over the opposition, exerting more than half-a-second in hand over closest rival Glenn Irwin on the Hager PBM Racing Team Ducati.

Despite not participating in the final session, Irwin's best during the penultimate outing for the BSB field to hold off Ryde's team-mate Ryan Vickers, the Thetford rider ensuring two OMG GRILLA Yamaha Racing machines inside the top three.

Honda Racing UK had a strong start to proceedings too with Andrew Irwin and defending champion Tommy Bridewell filling the remainder of the top five positions, the latter gradually improving his lap times over the course of the two days as he continues to adapt to inline-four machinery.

Peter Hickman made big gains in the penultimate session on Sunday to lead the way among the BMW contingent, with Danny Kent turning in the seventh fastest time on the McAMS Racing Yamaha overall.

Jason O'Halloran maintained his status as the top Kawasaki representative on the Completely Motorbikes FS-3 Racing entry, the Australian - like Bridewell - spending the two-day test getting better acquainted with his new ZX-10RR machine.

Dean Harrison made it three official Hondas inside the top ten, the 2019 Senior TT winner turning in the ninth fastest time, while Leon Haslam took his eponymous ROKiT Haslam Racing BMW M 1000 RR to the edge of the top ten in tenth.

Elsewhere, other noteworthy performances included top Pathway entrant Alex Olsen on the Team IWR Honda in 17th, while another series returnee in Rory Skinner followed him up in 18th after contesting the first day only.

Though there weren't too many incidents over the Saturday and Sunday session, there were falls for both Josh Brookes and Charlie Nesbitt. The pair would end the test 12th and 14th respectively.