Byrne fastest in BSB free practice at Brands Hatch

The British Superbike Championship gets underway this weekend at Brands Hatch Circuit, where we can expect plenty of action. Yesterday both free practice sessions were held in difficult conditions, especially the first one, in which only four riders went out on track because of the very cold conditions on the circuit.

Tinmouth with his Honda was the fastest in these conditions, with a lap time of 59.109s, followed by Bridewell on another Honda, 0.776s behind, and Waters in 3rd on his Yamaha more than 1.8s back, with Ellison, the former MotoGP rider, in 4th on his Yamaha almost four seconds off the leader.

Given the conditions, this first FP1 is not a reference. The FP2 session, however, was held in better conditions, and we saw most of the riders in action. The fastest in this second session was Shane Byrne, the veteran rider managing a time of 46.787s, while Alex Lowes on his Honda was 0.086s behind in second, so the front of the field is very close.

Completing the top 5 were Bridewell in 3rd, more than three tenths back; Kiyonari was 4th on his Honda, and the top five places were covered by Ellison and his Yamaha. The final top 10 in this FP2 was Brookes 6th, Westmoreland 7th, Harris 8th, Smrz 9th and Walker 10th.

Today the qualifying sessions take place, so the BSB action also gets going for 2013 with plenty of excitement and many riders in the spotlight, although for now Byrne and Lowes appear to be the most in form.

Source | BSB