Honda Racing’s Glenn and Andrew Irwin set the pace in three of four sessions at the final Bennetts British Superbike pre-season test at Donington Park yesterday.

With near-perfect conditions at the Leicestershire circuit, it was Andrew who topped the times in the first session of the day with a 0.137-second advantage over championship rival Danny Buchan, with older brother and teammate Glenn finishing third.

The second session of the day saw another Honda 1-3, again with Andrew leading the way and showing the potential of the brand-new Fireblade. But it was all change at the top in the third session with Glenn topping the sheets with a time of 1’06.640, while Andrew came home in third place.

In the final session, it was looking to be a clean sweep, with Andrew and Glenn swapping places at the top, but in the final stages it was Lee Jackson who claimed the top spot.

Times were close with the top 18 riders covered by just 0.787s, which saw Glenn finish fourth (+0.054) and Andrew seventh (+0.207).

“Today was a positive day, we probably didn’t expect to be as close to the front as we were, which is a nice feeling,” said Andrew.

The Fireblade is completely new and we don’t have a lot of different parts on it from the road bike, so that’s a positive of how good the bike is out of the crate.

“I am looking forward to coming back to Donington in just over a weeks’ time and get racing. My consistency is good, I have good race pace and I’m feeling strong ahead of the first race.”

Glenn added: “It has been great to get out on track with other riders, other than my Honda teammates, it’s been a long time for me since Assen last year.

“It’s been a really enjoyable day and we managed to get an idea of where we are. We needed every lap today and we worked through a lot and topping the times in the third session was really encouraging to show we are competitive.

“The last session I didn’t really get a clean lap, but overall I am really happy with the times and today is a real testament to the new Fireblade.

“We do need to stay realistic to where we are keep our feet on the ground heading into round one, but I’m looking forward to keep on developing the new machine and moving forward.”