Jason O'Halloran smashed the fastest ever Bennetts British Superbike Championship lap time of the Donington Park Grand Prix circuit in the opening free practice of the weekend to lead the session. The McAMS Yamaha rider set a new benchmark of 1m:27.997s, 0.278s faster than the existing time set in 2016 on the recently resurfaced circuit.
O’Halloran said: “It was a good start to the weekend to finish on top and ride the new surface as at the test we didn’t do too much because of the weather so that was our first real session on the new surface at Donington Park. They have done an amazing job with it. It is the first time I have ridden a track with a new surface in quite a while and it is really smooth and has plenty of grip and it made it a really enjoyable session.
“Obviously coming off the back of Oulton Park it was important to start the weekend well, which we did and we want to keep the momentum going now in the next session. I am sure the times will keep improving as the weekend goes on, so it will be interesting to see how fast everybody gets and what lap times can be achieved. It is always nice to do the fastest lap at a circuit so hopefully we can keep bringing it down!”
The times continued to tumble dramatically in the session, despite some light rain earlier in the opening track action for Bennetts BSB. Local contenders Leon Haslam and Kyle Ryde had originally been the leading pair, but the final ten minutes of the session saw a flurry of faster laps to shake up the order.
O’Halloran set the fastest time on his final lap of the session, leading Ryde by 0.092s as the top six riders lapped under the existing race lap record. Josh Brookes meanwhile climbed to third in the closing stages to close in on his Yamaha rivals with Danny Kent completing the top four after also having a spell at the top earlier in the session.
Haslam was fifth at the chequered flag ahead of Danny Buchan who returned with SYNETIQ BMW following his Silverstone crash and Charlie Nesbitt completed the top eight on the MasterMac Honda by Hawk Racing.
Tommy Bridewell and Peter Hickman completed the top ten with BeerMonster Ducati championship leader Glenn Irwin in 16th.
Bennetts British Superbike Championship, Donington Park, Free Practice 1 result:
- Jason O'Halloran (McAMS Yamaha) 1m:27.997s
- Kyle Ryde (LAMI OMG Racing Yamaha) +0.092s
- Josh Brookes (FHO Racing BMW Motorrad) +0.195s
- Danny Kent (Lovell Kent Racing Honda) +0.395s
- Leon Haslam (ROKiT BMW Motorrad) +0.488s
- Danny Buchan (SYNETIQ BMW) +0.502s
- Héctor Barberá (TAG Racing Honda) +0.702s
- Charlie Nesbitt (MasterMac Honda by Hawk Racing) +0.752s
- Tommy Bridewell (BeerMonster Ducati) +0.943s
- Peter Hickman (FHO Racing BMW Motorrad) +0.983s
For the full session result please click here