Tyco BMW’s Christian Iddon started the 2016 MCE Insurance British Superbike Championship season on top after the opening two free practice sessions at Silverstone today (Friday).

The Tyco BMW rider had been building momentum throughout the session, waiting until the closing stages to pip Luke Mossey on the Quattro Plant Teccare Kawasaki, who had been holding the leading position as the times began to tumble.

Iddon said: 

“It has been really good today. The morning started out a bit frustrating as it was the first day of school and we weren’t able to go and play in the playground straight away, and it was damp. I just wanted to get out on track and play! It was a bit of a shame in the first session as we had something we wanted to test and it meant we had a much bigger work load for the second session. I would like to have stayed out and played on my Tyco BMW, but we had to try a few things which meant I had to come in and out a bit.

“We tried a different shock this afternoon and we are going to have a look through the data tonight. It looks like it was a lot better; we did a similar time to what we did at the test and I would say that conditions today was marginally worse as there was a wet patch going into Stowe and a few other areas. I am just enjoying riding today; it is the first day of the first race weekend of the year so we won’t be having any parties just yet but it is nice to top a session and we have a smiles on our faces so job’s a dream!”

The ePayMe Yamaha team had a strong start to their debut campaign as America’s John Hopkins stormed inside the top three, ahead of four-time champion Shane 'Shakey' Byrne, who had also enjoyed a spell at the top of the times earlier in the session on the Be Wiser Ducati.

Honda Racing’s Jason O'Halloran was fifth fastest, making it five different manufacturers inside the top ten, ahead of this morning’s fastest rider Jakub Smrz on the Smiths Racing BMW.

Leon Haslam did his best lap of the session in the closing stages to hold seventh place on the leading JG Speedfit Kawasaki with his team-mate James Ellison also inside the top ten in ninth position.

Michael Laverty had split the JG Speedfit Kawasaki team-mates on the second Tyco BMW with Martin Jessopp completing the top ten for the RidersMotorcycles BMW team.

Ryuichi Kiyonari was the leading Bennetts Suzuki, narrowly missing out on the top ten in eleventh place ahead of Peter Hickman and team-mate Tommy Bridewell ahead of tomorrow’s final free practice and Datatag Qualifying sessions.

Christian Iddon (Tyco BMW) 2m:06.617s

Luke Mossey (Quattro Plant Teccare Kawasaki) +0.147s

John Hopkins (ePayMe Yamaha) +0.614s

Shane Byrne (Be Wiser Ducati) +0.670s

Jason O'Halloran (Honda Racing) +0.705s

Jakub Smrz (Smiths Racing BMW) +0.987s

Leon Haslam (JG Speedfit Kawasaki) +1.016s

Michael Laverty (Tyco BMW) +1.074s

James Ellison (JG Speedfit Kawasaki) +1.260s

Martin Jessopp (RidersMotorcycles.com BMW) +1.311s

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