Ryde holds off Redding to take top spot in Pre-Qualifying at Donington Park.
Kyle Ryde held off Scott Redding in the British Superbike Championship Pre-Qualifying session at Donington Park this afternoon, as the defending champion held a 0.169s advantage over his main title rival ahead of tomorrow’s opening race.
Ryde upped the pace to set the session-topping time on his penultimate lap of the session on the Nitrous Coin Nitrous Competitions Racing Ducati.
Redding had set the pace in the second Free Practice session and the Hager PBM Racing Team rider was pushing his rival all the way to the chequered flag with Max Cook proving a threat too, completing the top three on the AJN Steelstock bimota.
Bradley Ray was fourth fastest on the McAMS Yamaha with his final lap of the session moving him up the order and ahead of Ryan Vickers, who had set the early pace in the opening Free Practice for Honda Racing UK.
Danny Kent was sixth fastest on the leading Cheshire Mouldings Yamaha, edging out local contender Leon Haslam and teammate Rory Skinner to complete the top eight. Christian Iddon and Lee Jackson lined up inside the top ten, whilst Ilya Mikhalchik and Glenn Irwin completed the top 12 riders through to tomorrow’s ROKiT Oxygen Performance Qualifying 2 session.
British Superbike Championship, Donington Park, Pre Qualifying result:
- Kyle Ryde (Nitrous Coin Nitrous Competitions Racing) 1m:26.863
- Scott Redding (Hager PBM Ducati) +0.169s
- Max Cook (AJN Steelstock bimota) +0.325s
- Bradley Ray (McAMS Yamaha) +0.382s
- Ryan Vickers (Honda Racing UK) +0.390s
- Danny Kent (Cheshire Mouldings Yamaha) +0.646s
- Leon Haslam (Moto Rapido Racing) +0.686s
- Rory Skinner (Cheshire Mouldings Yamaha) +0.767s
- Christian Iddon (Sencat Racing Yamaha) 0.786s
- Lee Jackson (DAO Racing Honda) +0.929s
- Ilya Mikhalchik (ROKiT BMW Motorrad British Superbike Race team) +0.965s
- Glenn Irwin (Nitrous Coin Nitrous Competitions Racing) +0.981s
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Kyle Ryde – Nitrous Coin Nitrous Competitions Racing:
“It’s been a good day. We’ve tried a fair bit with the bike, with what we’ve learnt over the last couple of meetings. Unfortunately, it felt okay, but nowhere near as good as it did last time we were here in May, so we went straight back to that in FP2 and instantly dropped half a second and felt like it did a few months ago so I was happy.
“Then we went out for pre-qualifying and I just felt a bit more confident and did a 26.8. I don’t think the track has been overly grippy today as it’s been quite windy, but it’s the same for everyone, and the lap times have been a bit slower than last time.
“I am looking forward to tomorrow and it’s a nice Brucey bonus to top day one. The green tick was to have the speed, we’ve got the pace and we’ve done a decent lap time so we’ve got both not sussed, but we’re in the ballpark.
“If someone has the edge on me tomorrow, I should be able to hang in there and that was the main objective. I am going to treat this weekend the same as Assen; if I can try and win a race in front of my home fans then I’ll try and do that, but I’ll try to be smart and get as many points as possible and try and leave with the same points that we’ve got.”
