Knockhill British Superbikes: Leon Haslam and Shane Byrne a dead heat FP2

You wouldn’t have been able to separate Leon Haslam and Shane Byrne with a Rizla paper this afternoon at Knockhill British Superbikes.

Both riders set the exact same time, a 49.004 to top the time sheets at the end of the first day at Knockhill for round eight of the BSB championship.

Byrne beat Haslam to the top by one thousandth of a second in the morning Knockhill practice, but the 25-year old made up that fraction of time to level peg with the title leader in the second practice outing.

Rizla weren’t far away either though, with Sykes setting a 49.006, and Cal Crutchlow was only another six thousandths off Sykes to nail fourth sport provisionally.

Michael Laverty continued his uncharacteristic rapid early weekend form with the fifth fastest time in front of the Ducati duo of Leon Camier and Michael Rutter.

Considering so far today we’ve had a few instalments of crashes, the 50-minute session went pretty much as planned, even with small spots of rain dropping on an odd occasion for the final 30 minutes.

Simon Andrews however did have an off with a highside that has aggravated his injured wrist from a Mallory Park testing crash ahead of last weekend’s wildcard WSB appearance at Brands.

Steve Mercer, the replacement for the injured Stuart Easton at MSS Kawasaki, set the 24thfastest time, just 2.212 seconds off the leaders in his first full BSB session.

Knockhill British Superbike Free Practice 2 Results

1. Leon Haslam HM Plant Honda 49.004
2. Shane Byrne Airwaves Ducati 49.004
3. Tom Sykes Rizla Suzuki 49.006
4. Cal Crutchlow HM Plant Honda 49.012
5. Michael Laverty Relentless Suzuki 49.197
6. Michael Rutter North West 200 Ducati 49.321
7. Leon Camier Airwaves Ducati 49.328
8. Billy McConnell MSS Discovery Kawasaki 49.400
9. Scott Smart Hawk Kawasaki 49.498
10. Karl Harris RM Racing Yamaha 49.541
11. Tristan Palmer Tena for Men Honda 49.657
12. Gary Mason Quay Garage Honda 49.758
13. Simon Andrews Lloyds British Jentin Yamaha 49.877
14. Atsushi Watanabe Rizla Suzuki 50.180
15. Tom Grant SMT Honda 50.291
16. James Ellison Hydrex Honda 50.401