Brookes leads Redding in dry FP3

Full BSB FP3 results at Donington Park

Josh Brookes has topped the first dry practice session at Donington Park for the penultimate round of the Bennetts British Superbike championship as he heads up a Be Wiser Ducati 1-2 in front of team-mate Scott Redding.

The 2015 BSB champion’s late 1m 29.337s was enough to go almost four-tenths of a second faster than Redding’s earlier leading time in FP3 after the Australian rider hunted a quick late lap in preparation for qualifying.

Redding retained second place nearly three-tenths of a second ahead of fellow BSB Showdown challenger Peter Hickman on the Smiths Racing BMW as Danny Buchan, who topped FP1 yesterday, ensured it was a top four Showdown lockout on the FS-3 Racing Kawasaki.

Bradley Ray continued to show late-season form for Buildbase Suzuki in fifth place at the end of the session, having claimed a double victory the last time BSB competed on Donington Park’s Grand Prix circuit layout, as Tyco BMW’s Christian Iddon slotted into sixth place.

Tommy Bridewell has improved to seventh place after a low-key Friday in wet conditions for Oxford Racing Ducati, with Dan Linfoot in eighth place for Santander Salt TAG Yamaha and former team-mate Jason O’Halloran in ninth place for McAMS Yamaha.

Final BSB Showdown contender Tarran Mackenzie completed the top 10 in FP3, almost one second off the pace of the front-runners, with the McAMS Yamaha rider fractionally in front of his brother Taylor Mackenzie who is standing in at Tyco BMW this weekend.

FP2 timesheet-topper Andrew Irwin suffered a mid-session fall at Craner Curves for Honda Racing which restrained his charge to 12^th place.