The fight for the title has begun. Tommy Hill started off the first day of practice at Donington Park by setting the pace for the British Superbike riders. Hill and five other title fighters will be competing for the 2011 BSB Championship over the next three rounds.
"It was a good start to the weekend for the Swan Yamaha team as nobody knew exactly what to expect coming back here after a break of a couple of years," Hill said. "We did a short test here but only did about 15 laps and we knew we were in a good position ahead of the weekend.
We have been comparing our times to the WSB round earlier in the year and we are already nearly matching those times which shows the level of competition here in BSB. We know everyone is going to be moving forward and we still have some tweaks to make tomorrow from both me and the bike so we are feeling good for qualifying."
Hill's teammate Eugene Laverty also had a positive qualifying, despite a crash in the morning session.
"I am happy enough with how today has gone but we could obviously have done without the crash at Craner Curves this morning," Laverty said. "I just went wide to avoid a slower rider and slid off. Luckily there wasn't a lot of damage at all and we could go back out again before the end of the session. I was happy with this afternoon although we were struggling with grip a little so we need to find more traction tomorrow just to make up that small margin. It is hard to know what the conditions will be like tomorrow but I know we can be strong in qualifying."
Tommy Hill currently leads the title fighters in the overall point standings.
First Free Practice Results
- Tommy Hill (Swan Yamaha) 1m:31.283s
- Michael Laverty (Swan Yamaha) +1.060s
- Jon Kirkham (Samsung Crescent Racing Suzuki) +1.195s
- Josh Brookes (Relentless Suzuki by TAS) +1.252s
- Shane Byrne (HM Plant Honda) +1.436s
- John Hopkins (Samsung Crescent Racing Suzuki) +1.511s
- Glen Richards (WFR Honda) +1.743s
- Graeme Gowland (WFR Honda) +1.848s
- Ryuichi Kiyonari (HM Plant Honda) +2.113s
- Chris Walker (Pr1mo Racing Kawasaki) +2.121s
