Milwaukee Yamaha’s James Ellison narrowly missed out on a front row start for tomorrow’s sixth round of the MCE Insurance British Superbike Championship at Brands Hatch but is confident that he has the pace to challenge for podium finishes in the races tomorrow on the Grand Prix circuit.

Ellison had been consistently improving throughout the two free practice sessions ahead of qualifying and when it came to the race one grid decider he came out fighting. The Kendal rider continued to be pushing with the lead group, but when the chequered flag came out he was pushed back to the second row.

Waters meanwhile endured a challenging day as he made his debut on the Grand Prix circuit; the double Australian champion suffered a crash in the second free practice session and was hopeful to bounce back in qualifying. Waters’ challenging weekend continued into qualifying and he will start from the fifth row in 20th.

Ellison said:

“I am disappointed to have missed out on the front row today but we have looked through the times and I am confident that we have the pace for tomorrow’s races. We have a few little tweaks still to make and then we will be good to go!”

Waters said:

“We had some bad luck today with the crash in the free practice session and that lost us a bit of time which put us on the back foot with the sessions today. I just made a few mistakes and I need to not make them tomorrow. We will regroup and come out in the races to do our best to try and get two good results.”

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