Josh Brookes maintained his position at the top of the Bennetts British Superbike Championship free practice times at Brands Hatch this afternoon, moving 0.481s ahead of his Be Wiser Ducati teammate Scott Redding to remain fastest ahead of tomorrow’s Datatag Qualifying session.

The 2015 champion had set the benchmark in the opening session in the morning and after the second 45-minute session the Australian again emerged on top, with his best lap on his final run putting him firmly on top at the circuit where he did the double last year.
Redding had equaled Brookes’ lap time with just 10 minutes of the session remaining, with the pair tied at the top, but the former MotoGP contender finished in second position after his first day on the Grand Prix circuit in Kent.

Christian Iddon and Tyco BMW bounced back spectacularly after some technical issues this morning saw them complete just a single lap. Iddon edged into the third fastest time and just 0.001s adrift of Redding on the timesheets.

Iddon’s improvement pushed Tarran Mackenzie back into fourth place; the McAMS Yamaha rider holding a top five position for the majority of the session to be ahead of Tommy Bridewell, who completed the leading five riders for Oxford Racing Ducati.
Peter Hickman was sixth fastest for Smiths Racing BMW with Dan Linfoot having another strong session to hold seventh place ahead of Jason O’Halloran, Luke Mossey and Danny Buchan who completed the top ten.

Bennetts British Superbike Championship, Brands Hatch, Free Practice 1 result:

1. Josh Brookes (Be Wiser Ducati) 1m:26.439s
2. Peter Hickman (Smiths Racing BMW) +0.020s
3. Scott Redding (Be Wiser Ducati) +0.050s
4. Dan Linfoot (Santander Salt TAG Yamaha) +0.192s
5. Tarran Mackenzie (McAMS Yamaha) +0.383s
6. Luke Stapleford (Buildbase Suzuki) +0.878s
7. Tommy Bridewell (Oxford Racing Ducati) +0.988s
8. Danny Buchan (FS3-Racing Kawasaki) +1.046s
9. Jason O’Halloran (McAMS Yamaha) +1.110s
10. Andrew Irwin (Honda Racing) +1.204s

Bennetts British Superbike Championship, Brands Hatch, Free Practice 2 result:

1. Josh Brookes (Be Wiser Ducati) 1m:25.615s
2. Scott Redding (Be Wiser Ducati) +0.481s
3. Christian Iddon (Tyco BMW) +0.482s
4. Tarran Mackenzie (McAMS Yamaha) +0.730s
5. Tommy Bridewell (Oxford Racing Ducati) +0.774s
6. Peter Hickman (Smiths Racing BMW) +0.797s
7. Dan Linfoot (Santander Salt TAG Yamaha) +0.957s
8. Jason O’Halloran (McAMS Yamaha) +1.022s
9. Luke Mossey (OMG Racing Suzuki) +1.121s
10. Danny Buchan (FS3-Racing Kawasaki) +1.191s

Josh Brookes – Be Wiser Ducati
Fastest in Free Practice 1 and 2
“To summarise today, it has been a good start to the weekend. I topped both sessions, so I can’t complain! The bike’s good enough to be in P1, high fives, everyone’s happy.
“But my job is to find the little negative niggling points and keep working at them until the bike gets better, so actually today there’s a few little things that we need to improve, just with the way the bike’s turning and handling the bumps and things like that but nothing major.
“The positive is that it’s evident where we need to work, and we’re trying to narrow it down the areas to work in but to finish today fastest is good for me and the team.”