Snetterton British Superbikes: Shane Byrne tops first session

British Superbike Championship leader, Shane Byrne, has set the fastest time of the first session for this weekend’s fifth round of the season at Snetterton.

Running with the 175kg weight penalty in practice for the second weekend on the bounce, Byrne set a time of 1:05.557, just half a second off the pole lap he set last year.

Both Airwaves Ducati riders completed 34 laps in this morning’s 50 minute session after having limited time testing at the Norfolk circuit over the past two weeks due to poor weather.

The GSE Racing pairing were split by Tom Sykes on the Rizla Suzuki followed by a resurgent Karl Harris who was just 0.6 seconds off the title leader.

The HM Plant Honda pairing of Leon Haslam and Cal Crutchlow have returned from the Suzuka 300K race last weekend to set the fifth and seventh fastest laps respectively. Crutchlow did have a spill at Coram Curve with 19-minutes of the session remaining but returned to the pits unhurt.

MSS Discovery Kawasaki’s Billy McConnell also had a little bad luck with a mechanical problem with a support pipe on his exhaust system breaking away, and Rizla Suzuki’s Atsushi Watanabe’s GSX-R1000 sat in the pit garage with flames in the belly pan half-way through the first free practice.

Snetterton British Superbike free practice one results:

1. Shane Byrne Airwaves Ducati 1.05.557
2. Tom Sykes Rizla Suzuki 1.05.771
3. Leon Camier Airwaves Ducati 1.06.100
4. Karl Harris RM Racing Yamaha 1.06.157
5. Leon Haslam HM Plant Honda 1.06.221
6. Stuart Easton MSS Discovery Kawasaki 1.06.559
7. Cal Crutchlow HM Plant Honda 1.06.661
8. Michael Rutter North West 200 Ducati 1.06.702
9. Simon Andrews Jentin Lloyds British Yamaha 1.06.723
10. Gary Mason (Cup) Quay Garage Honda 1.07.387
11. James Ellison Hydrex Bike Animal Honda 1.07.582
12. Billy McConnell MSS Discovery Kawasaki 1.07.771
13. Tristan Palmer Tena for Men Honda 1.07.908
14. Scott Smart Hawk Kawasaki 1.07.980
15. Michael Laverty Relentless Suzuki 1.08.024