MCE British Superbike Championship
Silverstone Circuit, Towcester, England
October 3, 2015
Qualifying Results (all on Pirelli tires):
From Qualifying Three:
1. Josh Brookes, Australia (Yamaha), 2:03.984
2. John Hopkins, USA (Ducati), 2:04.281
3. Christian Iddon, UK (Suzuki), 2:04.530
4. James Ellison, UK (Kawasaki), 2:04.532
5. Luke Mossey, UK (Kawasaki), 2:04.735
6. Jakub Smrz, Czech Republic (Yamaha), 2:04.839
7. Peter Hickman, UK (BMW), 2:04.857
8. Michael Laverty, UK (BMW), 2:04.999
9. Dan Linfoot, UK (Honda), 2:05.010
10. Shane Byrne, UK (Kawasaki), 2:05.215
From Qualifying Two:
11. Tommy Bridewell, UK (BMW), 2:05.476
12. Danny Buchan, UK (Kawasaki), 2:05.550
13. Billy McConnell, Australia (BMW), 2:05.761
14. Richard Cooper, UK (BMW), 2:05.808
15. Josh Waters, Australia (Suzuki), 2:05.907
16. Lee Jackson, UK (BMW), 2:05.990
17. Ryuichi Kiyonari, Japan (BMW), 2:06.048
18. Martin Jessopp, UK (BMW), 2:06.393
19. Howie Mainwaring Smart, UK (Kawasaki), 2:06.823
20. Luke Stapleford, UK (Kawasaki), 2:06.906
From Qualifying One:
21. Robbin Harms, Denmark (Kawasaki), 2:07.031
22. Julien Da Costa, France (Honda), 2:07.288
23. Filip Backlund, Sweden (Kawasaki), 2:07.940
24. Taylor Mackenzie, UK (Kawasaki), 2:08.401
25. Aaron Zanotti, UK (Yamaha), 2:09.345
26. Shaun Winfield, UK (Kawasaki), 2:09.432
27. John Ingram, UK (Kawasaki), 2:09.465
28. Jenny Tinmouth, UK (Honda), 2:11.058
29. Rhalf Lo Turco, Brazil (Kawasaki), 2:13.416
30. Jed Metcher, Australia (Kawasaki), no time recorded
31. Jack Kennedy, Ireland (Kawasaki), no time recorded
More, from a press release issued by MotorSport Vision Racing:
Bullish Brookes sets fastest ever Superbike lap of Silverstone to claim pole as arch rival Shakey starts tenth
Results
Datatag Qualifying:
1: Josh Brookes (Milwaukee Yamaha) 2m:03.984s
2: John Hopkins (Lloyds British Moto Rapido Ducati) +0.297s
3: Christian Iddon (Bennetts Suzuki) +0.546s
4: James Ellison (JG Speedfit Kawasaki) +0.548s
5: Luke Mossey (Quattro Plant Kawasaki) +0.751s
6: Jakub Smrz (Milwaukee Yamaha) +0.855s
Report
Josh Brookes claimed pole position by annihilating the existing lap record to set the fastest ever Superbike lap of Silverstone during Datatag Qualifying ahead of tomorrow’s MCE Insurance British Superbike Championship races.
The championship leader had the edge on all of his Title Fighter rivals, upping the pace in each of the three stages before dipping into the 2m:03s window to smash his previous best time, but John Hopkins was only 0.297s adrift for the Lloyds British Moto Rapido Ducati team.
Hopkins had fired in his lap in the closing stages of the session to close the deficit whilst Christian Iddon delivered his best qualifying performance of the season to score Bennetts Suzuki their first front row start of the season as the Showdown spoilers mixed up the Title Fighters.
James Ellison heads the second row on the leading Kawasaki; the JG Speedfit Kawasaki rider held off Luke Mossey and the second Milwaukee Yamaha of Jakub Smrz to claim fourth position on the timesheets.
Peter Hickman forced his way into the final stage of qualifying and he held seventh place to be the top BMW contender for the RAF Reserves squad ahead of Michael Laverty on the Tyco BMW. Dan Linfoot held eighth for Honda Racing to make it all six manufacturers inside the top ten.
It was a nightmare session though for defending champion Shane ‘Shakey’ Byrne he will start tenth on the grid for tomorrow’s opening race, but the PBM Kawasaki rider is confident that the team will have resolved the issue ahead of the two crucial races.
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Josh Brookes (Milwaukee Yamaha)
Championship leader: 553 points
Datatag qualifying position: Pole position
“I kind of changed my character a bit during qualifying as normally I will do two, three or four laps and ride to the chequered flag, but in Q2 I did a really nice lap and I felt there wasn’t a lot more I could achieve and I thought that it would be enough to get into the final qualifying. I wanted to leave that good thought in my head going into the last run.
“When I went out in Q3, on our dash when you do a personal best lap a light comes on and when you drop below your personal best the light goes out, and my first flying lap I went into the first turn and I made a mistake and I rolled the throttle and immediately the light went out on the dash and I was devastated. But I kept the gas and the light came back on so whatever I lost I made back and that meant game on again and I kept everything as good as I could and raced right to the finish.
“I saw ‘03.9 on the dash and I thought to myself could I go for another lap? Which was my normal strategy, and I thought if someone could beat that lap then they deserve it because I laid everything fairly well on the line on that lap. I didn’t really believe I could make a better lap without another fresh pair of tyres so I just pulled off and rode it into the pits.
“The team have done a really good job with the bike to give me that confidence and I looked at my pit board and saw a 0.2 and I thought who the hell is that close to me, as I was expecting to see a bigger gap, and it was Hopper. He was the previous track record holder – and it shows he’s feeling good on his bike.
“I am still focusing on my own situation and just working on your bike and tyre conservation. I am trying to maintain that same focus – if you do the same thing you should be able to achieve the same results.”
Shane Byrne (PBM Kawasaki)
Second in the standings: 551
Datatag Qualifying position: 10th
“Today actually, despite ending in a really negative way, was a really good day for us at PBM Kawasaki. It has been a tough weekend so far and they always seem to be just lately, but the team has dug deep today. We tried something this morning and then into qualifying Q1 we made another improvement and then for Q2 we made a big step and the lap time was really, really good and I was really happy with the lap time. I did that lap on the back of the Buildbase BMW guys and I actually caught them a bit faster than I had anticipated and perhaps just lost a tiny bit of time because of it.
“We then made another small change to the bike for Q3 in the same direction that we had gone in from Q1 to Q2 so I was feeling really confident of another little step in lap time, but immediately the first couple of corners I knew we had a problem. Whilst I dug deep and gave it absolutely everything, a problem not with the bike but with a component on it, gave us no grip and a load of chatter so it was a really, really frustrating way to end the day but I think we can take a lot of positives from today.
“OK we start tenth on the grid for tomorrow which is a bit pants, but a fast lap in race one will give us a better grid position for race two and there are plenty of places to make passes here so I am far from downbeat and I am much happier now we can see what the problem was. I felt bad for the team as I had a good Q2 and then we went all out for Q3 and had an absolute disaster and when I came in and said what it was doing, they were like ‘really’ but it turns out it was right. We will try something again in warm up in the morning and then fingers crossed for two strong races.”
More, from a press release issued by Milwaukee Yamaha:
BROOKES SECURES POLE POSITION WITH FASTEST EVER SUPERBIKE LAP OF SILVERSTONE
Josh Brookes celebrated claiming pole position at the penultimate round of the MCE Insurance British Superbike Championship at Silverstone, smashing the existing lap record to lead the field, whilst Jakub Smrz will start from the second row.
Brookes was a dominant force in qualifying, upping the pace with each stage of Datatag Qualifying, claiming his fifth pole position of the season, as he looks to extend his 28 point advantage in the standings after the two races tomorrow.
Smrz continued to build momentum and he scored his best qualifying result of the season with the Milwaukee Yamaha team, 0.855s adrift of his team-mate Brookes.
Josh Brookes
“I kind of changed my character a bit during qualifying as normally I will do two, three or four laps and ride to the chequered flag, but in Q2 I did a really nice lap and I felt there wasn’t a lot more I could achieve and I thought that it would be enough to get into the final qualifying. I wanted to leave that good thought in my head going into the last run.
“I saw ‘03.9 on the dash and I thought to myself could I go for another lap? Which was my normal strategy, and I thought if someone could beat that lap then they deserve it because I laid everything fairly well on the line on that lap. I didn’t really believe I could make a better lap without another fresh pair of tyres so I just pulled off and rode it into the pits.
“The team have done a really good job with the bike to give me that confidence and I looked at my pit board and saw a 0.2 and I thought who the hell is that close to me, as I was expecting to see a bigger gap, and it was Hopper. He was the previous track record holder – and it shows he’s feeling good on his bike. I am looking forward to the races tomorrow and this has given us more confidence.”
Jakub Smrz
“Today I got lot more confident on Milwaukee Yamaha R1 and we found some good improvements on set up as well. In Q1 I wasted a lot of time in traffic and I wasn’t able to set a good lap to be 100% safe into Q2.
“The result was I had to start Q3 on a used tyre but I am still happy with the second row even if it could have been a front row. For warm up we want to try more changes to see if we can find something more for race. Thanks all my team for a great job!”
More, from a press release issued by Bennetts Suzuki:
IDDON & BENNETTS SUZUKI FRONT-ROW AT SILVERSTONE
Christian Iddon will start from the front row of the grid for tomorrow’s opening British Superbike race at Silverstone, after setting the third fastest time in qualifying onboard his Bennetts Suzuki GSX-R1000 today.
After making a big-step with bike’s set-up in the final free practice session, Iddon comfortably progressed from the opening qualifying session in seventh place, before setting the sixth-fastest time in Q2.
With the pace increasing in every session, he set his fastest lap of the weekend in the third and final qualifying session and will start from the inside of the front row for tomorrow’s first race.
Christian Iddon:
“I’m really happy with that and it’s the result of a lot of hard work from the team. I’m excited for tomorrow but it’s only qualifying so not going over the top. But I said before we’ve got five races left to show what we can do and hopefully this is the start of doing that. We’ve been making changes throughout the weekend and I’ve got a race-ready bike I’m happy with. We’ll make a few tweaks for warm-up but I’m happy with most of the track. We’ve also done a few runs on the same tyre to try and improve tyre-wear after Assen. I don’t think we’re badly-placed and we should be in with a shout tomorrow.”
Josh Waters progressed from the opening qualifying session and into Q2 after exploring some different set-up options and evaluating some new components in practice.
Despite an improved pace in practice, it didn’t quite come together in qualifying and the double Australian Superbike Champion will start from 15th on the grid.
Josh Waters:
“I’m feeling good. We kept improving the bike from Assen but also got some new components to try this weekend, so we’ve been evaluating those. Our pace is better than our final qualifying position. We put a new tyre midway through Q2 but with the format being how it is and the sessions so short, I didn’t get the chance to put it a hot lap on it. But I think our race-pace is good and think we can do a good job over race distance tomorrow.”
Team Owner Martin Halsall was delighted with the team’s first front row qualifying. He said: “We always knew the potential was there and it feels brilliant to finally get onto the front row of the grid. It’s been a long time coming and after struggling with illness, injury and bad luck at the other rounds, I’m delighted to see the Bennetts Suzuki where we know it should be. Everyone in the team has worked hard this season to get to grips with the bike and keep improving it over the year, and Christian’s done a super job this weekend. However, the job’s not done yet and we’re looking forward to fighting at the front tomorrow.
“Josh is in a good place and has been having a positive weekend so far. The one-lap pace was so fast out there in qualifying that it’s nudged him further back on the grid, but there have been some more improvements this weekend so far and if he can get away in the races his race pace should be good enough for some decent results tomorrow.”