Glenn Irwin maintained his position at the top of the Bennetts British Superbike Championship free practice times for Honda Racing UK at the end of the opening day at Donington Park, after the afternoon session was hampered by wet conditions.
Irwin had topped the order in the damp morning session and with heavy rain in the afternoon, only Leon Haslam and Dean Harrison ventured out onto the circuit to experience the conditions.
Irwin held off Ray this morning by 0.160s with Peter Hickman completing the top three contenders.
Irwin said: “Obviously the conditions today have been a bit funny; I sat in the box for most of the session this morning and went out with about 17 minutes to go.
“I felt good and the momentum that we have had is continuing and that momentum of late has built even more. I feel that we have been getting stronger over the last couple of rounds and today it has continued.
“The bike felt good even though the conditions haven’t been great, even the lap time despite the conditions were reasonable. It is important to top Bradley and that is my goal for this weekend, to keep the Yamaha behind me.
“That is the first blow as such so now we need to keep it up for tomorrow.”
Bennetts British Superbike Championship, Donington Park GP, SUPERPICKS combined Free Practice result:
- Glenn Irwin (Honda Racing UK) 1m30.611s
- Bradley Ray (Rich Energy OMG Racing Yamaha) +0.160s
- Peter Hickman (FHO Racing BMW) +0.557s
- Kyle Ryde (Rich Energy OMG Racing Yamaha) +0.774s
- Leon Haslam (VisionTrack Kawasaki) +1.076s
- Danny Buchan (SYNETIQ BMW) +1.116s
- Takumi Takahashi (Honda Racing UK) +1.276s
- Andrew Irwin (SYNETIQ BMW) +1.405s
- Ryo Mizuno (Honda Racing UK) +1.531s
- Josh Brookes (MCE Ducati) +1.765s
- Tommy Bridewell (Oxford Products Racing Ducati) +1.889s
- Storm Stacey (Team LKQ Euro Car Parts Kawasaki) +2.205s
For the combined free practice times please click here