McAMS Yamaha’s Jason O’Halloran recorded the quickest time in the final Bennetts British Superbike Championship free practice session at Donington Park on Saturday morning. He lapped a tenth quicker than Lee Jackson (FS-3 Racing Kawasaki) and Glenn Irwin (Honda Racing).
Jackson set the initial pace in the 20-minute session with a 1’06.257s which put him ahead of teammate Skinner and Glenn Irwin but the latter soon went quickest with a lap of 1’06.131s – that was already quicker than what he’d managed on Friday.
Meanwhile, Leon Haslam showed no ill effects from his spill on Friday and slotted into fifth on the VisionTrack Kawasaki.
Jackson was the first into the 1’05s with a lap of 1’05.909s and that pushed Irwin down to second with Haslam up to third, now lapping half a second quicker than what he’d managed the previous day. Reigning champion Tarran Mackenzie (McAMS Yamaha) was also upping his pace and went fifth quickest after eight minutes.
By the mid-way point, Jackson had extended the gap at the top of the leaderboard to 0.339s with a lap of 1’05.745s and behind him the running order was now Glenn Irwin, Bradley Ray, Skinner, Haslam and Mackenzie. Josh Brookes (MCE Ducati) was just outside the top six in eighth having improved his time by half a second.
With five minutes to go, Hickman moved up to third but Danny Kent was a faller, the Hawk Suzuki rider going down at Craner Curves and that brought out the red flag.
When the session resumed, a flurry of quick laps came in and it was O’Halloran who seized the top spot with a 1’05.603s. That put him just over a tenth ahead of Jackson and Glenn Irwin with Andrew Irwin (Synetiq BMW) taking fourth.
Hickman and Ray slipped back to fifth and sixth respectively with Skinner, Haslam, Ryde and Danny Buchan rounding out the top ten. Mackenzie, Brookes and Tom Sykes placed 11th to 13th.
