Swan Yamaha's Michael Laverty set the fastest time in this morning's third and final British Superbike free practice session at Silverstone this morning while yesterday's quickest man John Hopkins watched from pitlane as he rested his injured hand.
Hopkins is struggling with the pain from an incision made to fix the damaged fourth finger on his right hand. Samsung Suzuki team boss Jack Valentine was frantically phoning around last night to find an oxygen pump for the American to get more O2 into his bloodstream and they eventually found one in Birmingham.
Hopkins 2'06.152 from yesterday would still have put him at the top of the timesheet today as it was one one-hundredth faster than Laverty managed this morning but the Irishman was nearly half a second quicker than Hopkins' team-mate Jon Kirkham in second.
Tommy Hill, on the second Swan bike, was third with Peter Hickman putting his Tyco-backed Fireblade in fourth and fastest Honda. The Lincolnshire man was one place ahead of Shane Byrne on the HM Plant bike with Graeme Gowland sixth and by far the fastest Evo runner.
Motorpoint Yamaha's Alex Lowes is seventh, one place ahead of Josh Brookes' Relentless Suzuki with Martin Jessopp and Tommy Bridewell completing the top ten. Glen Richards is second of the Evo runners in 14th with Barry Burrell third in 19th.
