BSB Brands Hatch, Qualifying: Vickers Takes Pole –

Brands Hatch hosts round six of the 2024 British Superbike Championship, with Glenn Irwin reclaiming the championship lead at the latest Snetterton BSP race. On Friday, Ryan Vickers was fastest in first practice, and he built on that early pace on Saturday by taking pole position.

Qualifying

Ryan Vickers took pole position for the first BSB race at Brands Hatch by setting the fastest qualifying time at his home track.

The #7 car was less than 0.1 seconds ahead of Danny Kent in second, with the #52 Yamaha car securing first and second, while Glenn Irwin completed the front row.

Tommy Bridewell looked capable of making it to the front row, but a big slide at the final corner on his final fast lap meant the best he could manage was fifth. Current champions Josh Brooks and Leon Haslam will start on the second row in race one, while Jason O’Halloran will lead the third row of Kyle Ryde and Christian Iddon.

Danny Buchan completes the top ten in qualifying, ahead of Andrew Irwin and Lee Jackson who will join him on the fourth row, while Franco Born, Charlie Nesbitt and Peter Hickman will start on the fifth row.

FP2

Glenn Irwin was fastest in the second session of BSB Racing’s free practice session at Brands Hatch, with the Northern Irishman posting a time of 1min 25sec on Friday afternoon.

Irwin wasn’t the only one to clock under 1m26s, with Tommy Bridewell and PBM Ducati rider Ryan Vickers joining him.

At the back, Leon Haslam made a big improvement from the first round, when he was 14th, to finish fourth in the second round, ahead of Danny Kent who came in fifth.

Jason O’Halloran was sixth fastest, ahead of Andrew Irwin, Christian Iddon, Lee Jackson and Josh Brooks, who completed the top 10. Peter Hickman and Charlie Nesbitt took the final two automatic qualifying places, meaning Kyle Ryde, who finished FP2 in 13th, will have to run Q1 tomorrow.

FP1

Ryan Vickers was fastest in the first session of BSB free practice at Brands Hatch, beating Christian Iddon to the top of the timesheets by 0.066 seconds.

Eddon was the best Ducati rider for the Oxford Products team, with BBM’s Glenn Irwin less than 0.3 seconds behind in fourth, two points clear of Honda’s Tommy Bridewell. Kyle Ryde in fifth was the final rider to join Vickers in 26 minutes.

The top 13 riders were separated by less than a second, with Andrew Irwin last. Charlie Nesbitt and Peter Hickman also missed out on the top 10.

However, Lee Jackson, Franco Born, Danny Kent, Danny Buchan and Jason O’Halloran made it through to the final. The second qualifying spot, which drops to 12th, will be decided in FP2.