Tommy Bridewell topped the final Bennetts British Superbike Championship pre-season Official Test at Silverstone, setting the benchmark lap time in the final session of the day for the Oxford Products Racing Ducati team despite the high winds and cool conditions.
Bridewell’s pace-setting lap came on lap four of a six-lap run as last year’s title runner-up bids to go one better this season. The time put him just 0.103s ahead of Rory Skinner’s time from yesterday on the FS-3 Racing Kawasaki.
The lap times had been incredibly close throughout the two days, and as next weekend’s opening round at Silverstone beckons, the top 22 riders were covered by just 0.909s despite the mixed conditions.
Bridewell said: “We have had a really strong pre-season test for definite. The test here has been fundamental to be honest. We have a lot of new parts that we had to test and we found something today as we had been experiencing a little issue. There were a lot of positives and one negative, but we continued riding today to fix it and we managed to, so because of that I am feeling really strong coming into round one.”
The Rich Energy OMG Racing Yamaha team had a positive end to their pre-season testing with Kyle Ryde and Bradley Ray locking out the next two positions on the timesheets in third and fourth place respectively.
Honda Racing UK’s Glenn Irwin completed the top five as he set his fastest lap in the penultimate session of the day, edging out Dan Linfoot on the iForce BMW. Christian Iddon was the leading Buildbase Suzuki rider in seventh place, making it six different manufacturers to feature in the top seven positions.
2018 champion Leon Haslam was eighth fastest for the VisionTrack Kawasaki team ahead of Danny Buchan, whilst Rapid CDH Racing Kawasaki’s Josh Owens impressed to complete the top ten.
Andrew Irwin, Ryan Vickers and Jason O'Halloran narrowly missed out on the top ten whilst double champion Josh Brookes and Tom Sykes finished the test in 14th and 19th respectively.
Reigning champion Tarran Mackenzie meanwhile has been diagnosed with a fracture to the left ankle after his high-speed crash yesterday following assessment at University Hospital Coventry. The McAMS Yamaha rider will see a specialist in Nottingham tomorrow (Friday) for further consultation.
Bennetts British Superbike Championship, Silverstone, Official Test, combined times:
1. Tommy Bridewell (Oxford Products Racing Ducati) 53.627s
2. Rory Skinner (FS-3 Racing Kawasaki) +0.103s
3. Kyle Ryde (Rich Energy OMG Racing Yamaha) +0.168s
4. Bradley Ray (Rich Energy OMG Racing Yamaha) +0.172s
5. Glenn Irwin (Honda Racing UK) +0.202s
6. Dan Linfoot (iForce BMW) +0.241s
7. Christian Iddon (Buildbase Suzuki) +0.306s
8. Leon Haslam (VisionTrack Kawasaki) +0.407s
9. Danny Buchan (SYNETIQ BMW) +0.435s
10. Josh Owens (Rapid CDH Racing Kawasaki) +0.465s
For the full session result please click here