Championship leader Kyle Ryde is the man to beat once more heading into the British Superbike Championship weekend at Donington Park after topping the pre-qualifying session.
The reigning two-time champion posted a best lap-time of 1:26.863 at his home circuit on Friday afternoon, which was enough to beat main title rival Scott Redding to top spot by 0.169s.
Max Cook completed the top three for AJN Steelstock bimota , ending his day 0.325s behind Ryde. Earlier this season, Ryde, Redding and Cook finished on the podium in all three races at Donington Park.
Bradley Ray was a mere 0.057s slower than Cook as he finished his day as the leading Yamaha rider, whilst Ryan Vickers completed the top five for Honda . Vickers has confirmed that he’ll remain with the factory Honda team next year.
Danny Kent and Leon Haslam were sixth and seventh respectively, whilst Rory Skinner and Christian Iddon ensured that all four Yamaha riders finished inside the top nine.
Lee Jackson, Ilya Mikhalchik and Glenn Irwin secured the final three automatic Q2 positions.
Joe Talbot missed out on a spot inside the top 12 by just 0.052s and will therefore have to go through Q1 on Saturday afternoon.
Jason O’Halloran and Josh Brookes finished the opening day in 14 th and 15 th respectively ahead of Scott Swann, Fraser Rogers and Storm Stacey. Rhys and Andrew Irwin completed the top 20, with Eugene McManus, Luke Hedger, Richard Kerr and Brayden Elliott completing the timesheets.
Q1 is scheduled to take place at 13:15 on Saturday afternoon (October 3) and will be followed by Q2 at 13:37. The opening BSB race of the weekend is due to begin at 16:15.
Sports Reporter - Motorcycle racing enthusiast Josh joined the MCN team in 2019. He studied Sports Journalism at the University of Sunderland, leaving with a 2:1 and a Gold Standard Diploma in Journalism from the National Council for the Training of Journalists (NCTJ). Introduced to the world of motorcycle racing by his dad as a youngster, Josh became a fan of MotoGP, WorldSBK and BSB. Like many, Josh became a huge Valentino Rossi supporter…little did he know that years later he would ask a question or two to the man himself.
Sports Reporter and fan of all things motorsport