Brands Hatch British Superbikes: Shane Byrne and Cal Crutchlow lead Saturday practice

You wouldn’t have been able to separate HM Plant Honda’s Cal Crutchlow and Shane Byrne aboard the Airwaves Ducati with a fag paper in this morning’s third free practice session of the weekend.

Both riders scored a 1.26.926 in the morning session and were the only two riders to dip under the 1.27 bracket.

As he has done for the entirety of testing and this afternoon, Shakey put in the longest run of laps with a whopping 30 laps in the 50 minute session, as did his team-mate Leon Camier who ended the practice seventh.

The morning proceedings didn’t go without disruption though.

Midway through Steve Plater highsided his AIM Yamaha at Sterling but walked away unscathed and will be ready for this afternoon’s afternoon qualifying session.

Simon Andrews continues to impress in practice finishing with a 1:27.505 to put him fourth fastest behind Leon Haslam in third and in front of Karl Harris on the Rob McElnea Yamaha who has been running at the front consistently all weekend so far.

And on his first visit to Brands Hatch Atsushi Watanabe appears to be getting to grips with the undulating Kent circuit, finishing free practice ninth, right behind team-mate Tom Sykes.

Brands Hatch British Superbikes free practice three results:

1 Shane Byrne Airwaves Ducati 1:26.926
1 Cal Crutchlow HM Plant Honda 1:26.926
3 Leon Haslam HM Plant Honda 1:27.067
4 Simon Andrews Jentin Yamaha 1:27.505
5 Karl Harris Team Yamaha 1:27.507
6 Michael Rutter North West 200 Ducati 1:27.778
7 Leon Camier Airwaves Ducati 1:28.025
8 Tom Sykes Rizla Suzuki 1:28.030
9 Atsushi Watanabe Rizla Suzuki 1:28.718
10 Billy McConnell MSS Discovery Kawasaki 1:28.860
11 Michael Laverty Relentless Suzuki 1:28.900
12 Tristan Palmer Tena for Men Honda 1:29.124
13 Scott Smart Hawk Kawasaki 1:29.133
14 Stuart Easton MSS Discovery Kawasaki 1:29.189
15 James Ellison Hydrex Honda 1:29.371
16 Adam Jenkinson SMT Honda 1:29.413
17 Guy Martin Hydrex Honda 1:29.461
18 Steve Mercer Yamaha Bob Farnham Tuning 1:29.846
19 TomTunstall Hardinge Honda 1:29.853
20 John Laverty Buildbase NW200 Ducati 1:29.92
21 Dean Ellison Yamaha Co-ordit Racing 1:30.030
22 David Johnson Honda Team Maxxis 1:30.456
23 Malcom Ashley Kawasaki ARP/MAR 1:30.456
24 Martin Jessop Honda Riders Racing 1:30.596
25 James Buckingham Honda Quay Garage 1:30.610
26 Steve Plater Yamaha AIM Racing 1:30.626
27 Chris Burns MV Agusta STP Superbike 1:30.653
28 Aaron Zanotti Honda Red Viper Racing 1:31.101
29 Luke Quigley Suzuki PDM Racing 1:31.712
30 Michael Howarth Tena for Men Honda 1:33.310
31 Brendan Clarke Ducati Team Trimnite Brookspeed 1:33.566