Before the Qualifying Practice, that will take place in the afternoon, Paul Bird Motorsport (Be Wiser Ducati Racing Team) took the first two places in BSB Free Practice 3 at Oulton Park. Glenn Irwin and Shane Byrne ranked first and second in FP3 after performing interesting laptimes. The winner of 2017 Macau Grand Prix took the lead with one lap in 1’34″312, faster than the race lap record set in 2015 by Josh Brookes (1’34″483), while the “King” of British Superbike Shane Byrne was second with 272 milliseconds off Irwin.
Ducatis were very fast on the rollercoaster track of Oulton Park, but there are many riders who could fight with them in QP: Jason O’Halloran (Honda) was third with a 288-millisecond gap, followed by Leon Haslam (Kawasaki, +0.371), Jake Dixon (Kawasaki) and the championship leader Bradley Ray (sixth and improving after a difficult Friday). Top 10 includes also Danny Buchan, Tommy Bridewell, Peter Hickman and Josh Brookes, but not Ryuichi Kiyonari, 19th as replacement rider of injured Dan Linfoot.
Other things happened during FP3: James Ellison had technical issues and both Mackenzie brothers, Tarran and Taylor, crashed at Shell. Race weekend already over for Christian Iddon, who broke his right hand in yesterday’s fall. Hopefully he will be back for the next round, scheduled at Knockhill from 15th to 17th June, after the long “Road Races break”.