2020 Bennett’s BSB is ready to go! O’Halloran leads the field at Donington Park with 0.019 seconds
The Bennetts British Superbike Championship got back on track today (Friday) at Donington Park, where McAMS Yamaha’s Jason O’Halloran beat Héctor Barberá’s practice times by 0.019 seconds as the 2020 season finally started.
An incredibly close start to this year’s first official event weekend saw the top 16 drivers behind with just 0.772 seconds before tomorrow’s opening race of the season.
Former MotoGP rider Barberá set the second fastest time in the final moments of a frenetic session in which Andrew Irwin on the new Honda Racing Fireblade was just behind O’Halloran. He had previously set the pace in today’s individual session, but he finished the race third fastest and was just 0.195 seconds behind the leading Yamaha rider.
Josh Brookes also mingled in the top 5 during the session, leading the VisionTrack Ducati group in fourth place, with teammate Christian Iddon in eleventh place.
Danny Buchan was fifth fastest for Team Massingberd-Mundy Kawasaki after having been in the lead for a while in the session. He held Glenn Irwin on the second of the onslaught Honda Racing Fireblades and Peter Hickman on the Global Robots BMW, making six manufacturers in the top seven places.
Luke Mossey ensured that both Rich Energy OMG Racing BMWs set competitive laps ahead of rival BMW contender Alex Olsen, while Kyle Ryde completed the top ten for Buildbase Suzuki.
Tomorrow’s 2020 opening race will be preceded by a second free practice session, Datatag qualifying and fans can watch all the action live on Eurosport 2 and listen to BSB Radio powered by Kawasaki K-Options, all of the live timings and commentary from the track .
Bennett’s British Superbike Championship, Donington Park, Free Practice 1:
- Jason O’Halloran (McAMS Yamaha) 1m: 06.535s
- Héctor Barberá (Rich Energy OMG Racing BMW) + 0.019s
- Andrew Irwin (Honda Racing) + 0.195s
- Josh Brookes (VisionTrack Ducati) + 0.354s
- Danny Buchan (Massingberd-Mundy Kawasaki) + 0.419s
- Glenn Irwin (Honda Racing) + 0.512s
- Peter Hickman (Global Robots BMW) + 0.544s
- Luke Mossey (Rich Energy OMG Racing BMW) + 0.583s
- Alex Olsen (Global Robots BMW) + 0.614s
- Kyle Ryde (Buildbase Suzuki) + 0.616s
For more information on the Bennetts British Superbike Championship, please visit www.britishsuperbike.com
Jason O’Halloran (McAMS Yamaha)
Fastest in free practice
“It’s really nice to be back after such a long wait. We had a really good test last week and the start of the first day of the first race weekend in 2020 feels great.
“We had a good plan and worked through it and everything seemed to be going pretty well. The track temperature was pretty high today; We have a few things to work on tomorrow because I’m confident that we can improve for the first race tomorrow afternoon.
“I felt good, the last two or three days on the bike I felt really good. I am so happy that tomorrow is finally race day, I can hardly wait! “