Tommy Hill made a spectacular return to domestic action by dominating the opening free practice sessions ahead of the seventh round of the ViSK British Superbike Championship in association with Pirelli at Mallory Park. The former World Superbike rider took over from Michael Rutter as the replacement rider for the injured Sylvain Guintoli in the Worx Crescent Suzuki team at the Leicestershire circuit and, on his debut with them, was quickly setting the pace. In the opening session, he recorded a lap of 89.93mph, but bettered that during the afternoon with a lap of the 1.41miles circuit in 56.227secs to be running a third of a second clear of the rest, led by Hydrex Honda rider Karl Harris. “This is fantastic and the way I wanted to return,” said Hill. “It has been has been so long since I have been able to look at the timing screen and be so happy it is a bit of an emotional time. “Things are gelling well for us, but we cannot get carried away and have to keep pushing forwards it is what happens on raceday that counts,” he added as he prepared for his one hundredth race in the country’s premier series. Harris was under pressure for second place on the leaderboard as James Ellison closed within 0.003secs aboard his Airwaves Yamaha as he prepared for a races in which he intends to peg back the 78 points deficit that he has on his team-mate, the series leading Camier. Chris Walker, riding the Motorpoint Henderson Yamaha, ran fourth, to be just ahead of Camier who was frustrated by machine problems that ruled him out of the second session, giving him no chance to improve on his best lap of 56.756secs. John Laverty, riding the locally prepared Buildbase Kawasaki, moved sixth with a lap of 56.841secs, just ahead of the HM Plant Honda duo of Josh Brookes and National Superstock Champion Steve Brogan who is deputising for the team’s injured Glen Richards. Julien da Costa, despite a tumble in the afternoon session, was ninth best aboard the MSS Colchester Kawasaki, with Stuart Easton only 0.002secs down on the Hydrex Honda, but ahead of the second MSS bike in the hands of Simon Andrews. Graeme Gowland, Rutter who was replacing Jason O’Halloran for this round on the SMT Honda and Ian Lowry riding the Relentless Suzuki were all within a second of Hill’s leaderboard topping time. Tommy Bridewell, the winner of three of the previous four Mirror.co.uk Cup races, was fastest in the category for independent teams and riders, with a best lap of 57.240secs aboard his Team NB Suzuki. Richard Cooper was 0.064secs down on the Co-ordit Yamaha with the series leading Gary Mason third with the Quay Garage Honda, having lapped in 57.333secs. Top ten times overall in free practice 1 Tommy Hill, Worx Crescent Suzuki, 56.227secs, av.sp. 90.27mph 2 Karl Harris, Hydrex Honda, 56.591s 3 James Ellison, Airwaves Yamaha, 56.594s 4 Chris Walker, Motorpoint Henderson Yamaha, 56.669s 5 Leon Camier, Airwaves Yamaha, 56.756s 6 John Laverty, Buildbase Kawasaki, 56.841s 7 Josh Brookes, HM Plant Honda, 56.898s 8 Steve Brogan, HM Plant Honda, 56.915s 9 Julien da Costa, MSS Colchester Kawasaki, 57.003s 10 Stuart Easton, Hydrex Honda, 57.005s More, from a press release issued by Airwaves Yamaha: ELLISON ON FRONT ROW PACE AT MALLORY PARK Airwaves Yamaha made a steady start to Round 7 of the British Superbike Championship today. Series leader Leon Camier finished 5th overall. James Ellison ended the day 3rd. Currently 2nd in the Championship, James set his best time of the day in the afternoon. With just 7 minutes of Free Practice 2 complete, he topped the timesheets with a 56.594 lap. However by the end of the 50 minute session, he slipped down to 3rd. Following second practice James commented, “It’s been a good first day. This morning we were on used tyres from Knockhill so we knew our times were going to be a little slower. Once the tyres have been through a heat cycle, there’s less grip. But the bike’s feeling strong already. I don’t think we’ve got much to change. We’ll continue to plug away tomorrow and get ourselves ready for Qualifying.” After discovering a problem with his Number One bike, Leon Camier used the spare Airwaves Yamaha YZF-R1 for morning practice. On his 26th and final lap, he posted the fastest Sector 1 time of the day to put him 2nd with a lap of 56.756. Agreeing there would be no benefit to using the spare bike once again, Leon sat out second practice. Instead the Airwaves Yamaha team worked on preparing Leon’s Number One bike for tomorrow. On his progress so far Leon said, “Considering I was on my spare bike this morning, I’m pretty happy with our times. We’ve also found a few changes so we can make another step forward for Free Practice 3. I’m really hoping for some good weather tomorrow. I want to get as many laps under my belt as possible when I get on my Number One bike. I know the Airwaves Yamaha team are working flat out to get it ready, so thank you to all of them.” Qualifying for Round 7 is scheduled to start at 1500 tomorrow, Saturday 18th July.