Silverstone BSB test: Bridewell tops overall times

Oxford Racing Ducati’s Tommy Bridewell topped the final Bennetts British Superbike Championship pre-season test at Silverstone, setting the leading lap time in the final session of the day despite the high winds and cool conditions.

Bridewell’s pace-setting lap came on lap four of a six-lap run as last year’s title runner-up bids to go one better this season. The time put him just 0.103s ahead of Rory Skinner’s time from yesterday on the FS-3 Racing Kawasaki.

The lap times had been incredibly close throughout the two days, and as next weekend’s opening round at Silverstone beckons, the top 22 riders were covered by just 0.909s despite the mixed conditions.

Rich OMG Yamaha team had a positive end to their pre-season testing with Kyle Ryde and Bradley Ray locking out the next two positions on the timesheets in third and fourth place respectively.

Honda Racing UK’s Glenn Irwin completed the top five as he set his fastest lap in the penultimate session of the day, edging out Dan Linfoot on the iForce BMW. Christian Iddon was the leading Buildbase Suzuki rider in seventh place, making it six different manufacturers to feature in the top seven positions.

2018 champion Leon Haslam was eighth fastest for the VisionTrack Kawasaki team ahead of Danny Buchan, whilst Rapid CDH Racing Kawasaki’s Josh Owens impressed to complete the top ten.

Andrew Irwin, Ryan Vickers and Jason O’Halloran narrowly missed out on the top ten whilst double champion Josh Brookes and Tom Sykes finished the test in 14th and 19th respectively.