BSB: Dominant pole for Brookes at wet Brands Hatch

Josh Brookes will start tomorrow’s opening MCE British Superbike race from pole position after a sodden qualifying session at Brands Hatch.

The heavens opened just half an hour before qualifying was set to get underway, so race bosses took the decision to delay the session by 20 minutes as they hoped the rain would pass.

As the rain slowly passed away, sweepers and marshals were out on track attempting to sweep away the standing water with the session finally getting underway at 16:20 local time.

Due to the lack of track time this weekend, riders were given an extended opening qualifying session to familiarise themselves with track conditions.

As always with tricky conditions, unexpected names were brought to the front and with improving conditions throughout the three sessions, a number were caught out before a hectic Q3 session.

Making the most of conditions, Brookes charged to the front by some 0.7 seconds ahead of second quickest man Luke Mossey, with Dan Linfoot joining them on the front row for Honda Racing.

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Peter Hickman will start fourth after just missing an opportunity to go again at the chequered flag with John Hopkins and Shane Byrne, who was unable to make the most of the wet conditions, completing the second row.

James Ellison fronts up row three for McAMS Yamaha ahead of Leon Haslam, who almost missed Q3 following a technical issue with his JG Speedfit Kawasaki towards the end of the second session. James Westmoreland rounds out the top ten after an impressive performance on the Gearlink Kawasaki.

The session didn’t go so well for the likes of Christian Iddon, Jason O’Halloran and Jake Dixon, who will start 11^th, 12^th and 13^th respectively, but the injured Glenn Irwin found it slightly easier in the wetter conditions and will start 14^th on the grid.

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