Samsung Honda’s Alex Lowes scorched inside the Silverstone lap record to score his seventh pole position of the season
ahead of the penultimate round of the MCE Insurance British Superbike Championship as he out-paced the battered and bruised series leader Shane Byrne.
Byrne had suffered a huge high-side off his Rapid Solicitors Kawasaki at Luffield during the morning free practice session and the defending champion dramatically landed heavily on his right hip. Byrne had spent the majority of the afternoon receiving physio with the series’ medical team at the track before being given the go-ahead to take part in qualifying minutes before the start of the session. He was helped to his bike and then sensationally delivered a fast lap to secure an all-important front row start.
“The bike just came round on me and flipped over the top and and I landed heavily on my side,” said Byrne. “I’m just relieved to have got out there for qualifying. I don’t know what I’ve done but it was not very comfortable. The medics did a lot of work to get me out there and I have to thank them for that as the time before qualifying has just disappeared!”
Byrne takes a single point lead into these races over Samsung Honda riding Lowes who had worked hard across the day to perfect the settings of his bike. Lowes said: “It was a lot better in qualifying than it had been earlier when I was struggling a bit, but I enjoyed that session and we can do a bit more before the races which are when the real action starts. I think it will be close in the races tomorrow but hopefully not as close as Assen!”
New Yorker PJ Jacobsen completed the front row, easing his title chasing Tyco Suzuki team-mate Josh Brookes onto the second row of the grid in fourth. Jon Kirkham and the Buildbase BMW team became the fourth manufacturer to feature in the top five ahead of Peter Hickman, having his best qualifying of the season, running sixth on the Lloyds British GBmoto Honda.
But two other Title Fighters, James Westmoreland and James Ellison face uphill struggles in the opening race. Westmoreland starts his Buildbase BMW from the third row in ninth, but James Ellison who crashed his Milwaukee Yamaha without injury on his first flying lap in qualifying starts from the sixth row.
Results
Datatag Extreme Qualifying:
1: Alex Lowes (Samsung Honda) 2m:05.724s
2: Shane Byrne (Rapid Solicitors Kawasaki) +0.554s
3: PJ Jacobsen (Tyco Suzuki) +0.596s
4: Josh Brookes (Tyco Suzuki) +1.046s
5: Jon Kirkham (Buildbase BMW) +1.176s
6: Peter Hickman (Lloyds British GBmoto Honda) +1.272s
