FHO Racing BMW’s Peter Hickman Takes Charge Of Day One’s Proceedings At Snetterton.

The Free Practice Two session got under-way at the Norfolk circuit of Snetterton with Honda’s Glenn Irwin making an early improvement on his lap time, getting into first place. FS-3 Racing’s Rory Skinner got inside the top ten in fifth place. Jason O’Halloran made his way into third place, his team-mate Tarran Mackenzie was in eighth place.

Ducati’s Tommy Bridewell put in his fastest lap time of the day after ten minutes putting him in second place, fellow Ducati man Josh Brookes was pushed back down the field to seventh, Iddon was down 11th place. SYNETIQ BMW’s Danny Buchan was in a strong fourth place, whilst team-mate Andrew Irwin was way-down in 19th place, two laps later he got up-to 14th place just outside the all-important top 12.

Josh Brookes put a flyer in and took the top spot off Glenn Irwin, with 25 minutes remaining in the session. Andrew Irwin got up-to a safe ninth place. Suzuki’s Gino Rea was out of the Q2 qualifying order in 13th place, Iddon was just inside the top 12, in 12th place.

At the half-way point of the session it was the top five of Brookes, Glenn Irwin, Hickman, Bridewell and Mackenzie, Christian Iddon was still in the last qualifying place for Q2 in 12th place. Kawasaki’s Ryan Vickers was in ninth place and unable to improve on his lap time, the young Thetford rider has an injured knee, could the injury get in his way this weekend?

With ten minutes remaining RICH Energy OMG Racing BMW’s Brad Ray got into third place, pushing Hickman to fourth place. With just five minutes remaining Iddon got into 11th place pushing out Andrew Irwin, Jason O’Halloran got into second place just 0.038s adrift from first placed fellow Australian Brookes. Rory Skinner put in a flying lap and made it to fourth place, pushing Iddon back into the danger Q1 zone in 14th place. Lee Jackson stormed up the time sheets into second place.

At the checkered flag yet again with seconds remaining it was Peter Hickman who stole the show, surging into first position with a lap time of 1:47.074, Danny Buchan finished in second place, Brookes in third place, Lee Jackson in fourth, O’Halloran in fifth, BMW’s Andrew Irwin took the last Q2 Qualifying spot in 12th place. Ryan Vickers and Christian Iddon with both have to go through Q1 tomorrow in Qualifying.

It’s all to play for tomorrow in Qualifying, will we see Josh Brookes on the front row of the grid for tomorrow’s race? Will Christian Iddon put todays gremlins behind him and go through to Q2? Qualifying is tomorrow at 10.50am

Featured Images: Bennetts British Superbikes, FHO Racing BMW.