Knockhill BSB: O’Halloran on the pace for FP2

Jason O’Halloran set the pace in the second Bennetts British Superbike Championship free practice session at Knockhill on Friday afternoon, the McAMS Yamaha rider lapping 0.112s quicker than Glenn Irwin (Honda) with Tommy Bridewell (Oxford Products Ducati) in third.

With better and drier conditions than the opening session earlier in the day, lap times fell considerably and Rory Skinner (Cheshire Mouldings FS-3 Kawasaki) was immediately on the pace with a lap of 48.378s which was almost four seconds quicker than the quickest time in FP1. That put him almost two tenths of a second clear of Bradley Ray (RICH Energy OMG Yamaha) but both were soon pushed down the order with Christian Iddon (Buildbase Suzuki) going quickest before Danny Buchan (Synetiq BMW) claimed the top spot. However, Skinner quickly responded with the first sub-48s lap of the weekend, 47.990s, to reclaim the top spot. With just seven minutes of the session gone, Ray slipped off at the hairpin but managed to get back to the pits whilst O’Halloran joined Skinner in the 47’s, Buchan, Iddon and Peter Hickman (FHO BMW) the running order behind. After ten minutes, Josh Brookes (MCE Ducati) moved up to third only for Lee Jackson to push him down a spot shortly afterwards and it was then a Kawasaki 1-2 as the Lincolnshire man closed to within 0.003s of team-mate Skinner. It was close in general at the top with just 0.079s covering the top five riders. At the halfway point of the 40-minute session, the top five remained the same – Skinner, Jackson, O’Halloran, Brookes and Buchan – with Iddon leading the chasing pack but two riders struggling to replicate their form from FP1 were Tom Sykes (MCE Ducati) and Leon Haslam (VisionTrack Kawasaki) who were back in 16th