Jason O’Halloran topped the leaderboard in the final Bennetts British Superbike practice session at Oulton Park on Saturday morning, the McAMS Yamaha rider posting a lap of 1'34.614s to end the short 20-minute session just 0.055s clear of Danny Buchan (Synetiq BMW).
Friday’s pacesetter Tommy Bridewell (Oxford Products Ducati) took third, the last of the field to dip into the 1'34s.
With good dry conditions at the Cheshire venue, it was Buchan who set the initial pace with a first flying lap of 1m36.341s and that put him ahead of Peter Hickman (FHo Racing BMW) and O’Halloran but second time around, the latter put the hammer down to go quickest with a lap of 1m34.782s, the first sub 1m35s lap of the weekend.
Hickman moved up to second, a full second adrift of O’Halloran with the second McAMS Yamaha of Tarran Mackenzie up to third ahead of Rory Skinner (FS-3 Racing Kawasaki) and Bridewell.
Buchan then moved back up to second place with a lap of 1m35.115s only to be overhauled a lap later by Bridewell, the Wiltshire rider just edging ahead with a time of 1m35.031s.
He went quicker still on his next lap at 1m34.979s to join O’Halloran in the sub 1m35s club only for the Aussie to respond with his lap of 1m34.614s which proved to be the quickest of the session.
Bridewell looked like he’d hold onto second but Buchan’s final lap of 1m34.669s saw him leapfrog above him and only narrowly miss out on the top spot.
Hickman’s strong pace continued throughout the session and he took fourth, half a second adrift of O’Halloran and only 0.003s ahead of fifth placed Christian Iddon (VisionTrack Ducati).
Bradley Ray (Rich Energy OMG Racing BMW), Lee Jackson (FS-3 Racing Kawasaki), Glenn Irwin (Honda Racing) and the impressive Josh Owens (Rapid CDH Racing Kawasaki) rounded out the top ten.
Skinner ended the session in 11th with reigning champion Josh Brookes down in 17th on the second VisionTrack Ducati.
