Bradley Perie claimed his first pole position of the Quattro Group British Supersport season at Brands Hatch on Saturday morning, the Appleyard Macadam Yamaha rider lapping more than half a second quicker than Rhys Irwin (Astro JJR Triumph) and Jamie van Sikkelerus (MPM Routz Racing Yamaha).
Perie made the early running with a lap of 1’28.859 and that put him 0.208s ahead of teammate Harry Truelove with Irwin, Scott Swann (Gearlink Kawasaki), Jamie Perrin (Yamaha) and Luke Stapleford on the second Gearlink machine completing the top six.
With 15 minutes to go, Perie extended his advantage to 0.359s with Irwin moving up to second and Richard Cooper, second on Friday, slotting into sixth on the BPE Yamaha by Russell Racing. Lee Johnston was the next mover, the Aschourt Racing rider jumping up to third on his Yamaha YZF-R6.
Half a second covered the top six with ten minutes to go and whilst the top three of Perie, Irwin and Johnston remained the same, Stapleford, Perrin and van Sikkelerus were now running fourth to sixth.
That didn’t last long as Swann went second quickest, 0.337s adrift of Perie and the Gearlink team were then at the top of the leaderboard as Stapleford posted a lap of 1’28.491s, 0.033s quicker than Perie’s earlier time. There was change further back too as Truelove moved back up to third and Damon Rees went fourth quickest on the second Ashcourt machine.
Johnston relegated his teammate to fifth, the Northern Irishman going third quickest once more with three minutes to go but Perie reasserted himself in the number one spot with a lap of 1’28.099 sending him 0.392s quicker than Stapleford.
Perie was on a roll with his next lap of 1’27.636s putting him more than half a second quicker than the rest of the field but whilst he held onto pole, it was all change behind him in the closing seconds, Irwin going second quickest for his best qualifying performance of the year. Another late mover was van Sikkelerus, the Dutchman rounding out the front row.
Rees and Johnston will line up beside each other in fourth and fifth respectively, with the late changes seeing Stapleford sand Truelove slip back to sixth and seventh. Cooper, Jack Scott, the leading GP2 rider, and Tom Booth-Amos on the third Gearlink machine completed the top ten.
