Be Wiser Ducati’s Shane Byrne set a new outright lap record during the MCE British Superbike Superpole session at Snetterton. The multiple champ smashed down a colossal 1’46.024, and could have gone even faster as he admitted to making a couple of ‘tiny mistakes’.
Byrne’s super quick time was eight tenths faster than the previous fastest-ever lap, which was set by Josh Brookes in 2015. It was McAMS Yamaha’s James Ellison who initially beat Brookes’ time and was on course to bag pole position, but his reign at the top was not to last as Byrne went 0.5s quicker.
The Panigale racer could have even lapped a sub 1’46, as he tried to be ‘absolutely perfect’. But he got the all important number one spot on the starting grid for the first of two races at the 300 track on Sunday.
Byrne has a few more things to try out on his red machine in warm up tomorrow but he looks on course to be the man to beat in 24 hours time.
“I actually made a couple of tiny mistakes. I made a bit of a mistake at turn two, just ever so slightly, but the last corner I tried to be absolutely perfect but I just missed the apex and tried to get on the gas a bit too hard, and got a tiny, tiny bit of movement,” said Byrne at the track.
“I tucked in as hard as I could and I crouched in for all of my worth, and I did a 1’46.0. We got pole and that is very important and we have a good run of tracks now and we need to tick a few more boxed off and see how we do in warm up.
“I was over the moon with the 1’46.8 in Q2, I knew James did a flipping quick time. I thought there might have been a 1’45 in there, and made some small mistakes. Either way it’s pole position, we worked to get here. To be fair, that lap was me all in.”
