Oulton Park BSB: Hat Trick for Hill

Swan Yamaha’s Tommy Hill celebrated his first triple win in the British Superbike Championship by claiming the final race victory of the weekend at Oulton Park ahead of Shane Byrne and Josh Brookes, who snatched third from Noriyuki Haga on the last corner.
 
Hill took the lead into Old Hall for the first time ahead of Michael Laverty and Josh Brookes, with the Tyco Suzuki rider moving second on the opening lap at Shell with a move up the inside, before he snatched the lead a lap later at Lodge to pass Hill. The championship leader didn’t wait long to reclaim the lead, pushing ahead of Brookes just a few hundred yards later into Old Hall.
 
The Tyco Suzuki rider was pushing hard but a big moment a lap later, out of the sight of the TV cameras, dropped him to sixth when he saved a huge high-side on the exit of Brittens and he then had to claw his way back up the order. He moved back up to fifth with a move at Lodge on Alex Lowes and then a lap later edged ahead of Laverty at Hilltop.
 
All the time though, Hill was edging his way clear and after doubling his lead to 1.4s in the space of two laps, he duly went on to complete his hat-trick and take maximum podium credits for the weekend. Further back, positions were in doubt and although Haga had settled into second ahead of Byrne and Brookes, he was coming under pressure from the Rapid Solicitors Kawasaki rider. Sure enough, Byrne made a pass on the twelfth lap and the Swan Yamaha rider then came under attack from a charging Brookes who had clawed back all the time lost. The Australian left it until the final lap to make a move on Haga at Lodge to stay ahead on the drag to the line to claim his third podium finish of the weekend, complete with broken windscreen and damaged tank courtesy of the fourth lap incident.
 
Laverty held fifth for Samsung Honda whilst Lowes took a top six finish for WFR Honda.
 
1 Tommy Hill (Swan Yamaha)
2 Shane Byrne (Rapid Solicitors Kawasaki) +1.135s
3 Josh Brookes (Tyco Suzuki) +1.483s
4 Noriyuki Haga (Swan Yamaha) +1.619s
5 Michael Laverty (Samsung Honda) +3.298s
6 Alex Lowes (WFR Honda) +7.093s