After the opening day of action at Donington Park, it’s Keith Farmer who topped the timesheets. He set the quickest time in free practice 2, just +0.036s ahead of Josh Brookes and a further 0.216s ahead of Scott Redding.
Free practice 1 kicked off under glorious sunshine at the famous Leicestershire circuit, where the riders would be facing a new challenge in 2019 – the short National Circuit.
Luke Mossey set the pace throughout the opening couple of minutes of the free practice 1, but it didn’t take long for the first faller of the session. Sylvain Barrier slid off his Brixx Ducati at Craner Curves, just three minutes into the session. Not long after, Brookes put his name at the top of the timesheets with Scott Redding and Peter Hickman also improving their lap times to edge there way up the timing screen.
McAMS Yamaha’s Tarran Mackenzie also had a fall at Craner Curves but, unlike Barrier, the rider from Ashby-de-la-Zouch could remount his R1 and return to the pit garage.
Following Barriers’ incident, the session was briefly stopped to allow marshalls to recover the Frenchman’s bike, in order to try and get him back on track for the final thirty minutes. Once the session restarted, the times started tumbling. Redding set the fastest lap right at the end of the session, to top the opening free practice ahead of his teammate and Mossey.
Free Practice 2 was topped by an unusual name, but it was a more familiar name who lead most of the session. Fresh from his Imola World Superbike call up, Tommy Bridewell had a comfy margin for most of the second session. That was until Irishman Keith Farmer snuck in a 1:06.475, which was just a narrow 0.036s over Josh Brookes. Scott Redding followed them to round out the top three.
Tommy Bridewell was fourth ahead of Ben Currie’s replacement, Hector Barbera, who had an outstanding debut day in the Bennetts British Superbike Championship. Luke Mossey completed the top six ahead of Mackenzie, Peter Hickman, Christian Iddon and Luke Stapleford who rounded out the top ten.
British Superbikes will be on track tomorrow with free practice 3, Qualifying and the first of three races.
