BSB: Haslam pips Mackenzie for Silverstone treble, Hickman makes Showdown

Leon Haslam celebrated his second-ever Bennetts British Superbike treble-victory at Silverstone this afternoon, holding off a strong charge from rookie Tarran Mackenzie to take his fifth consecutive win.

There was drama ahead of the race starting with showdown contender Peter Hickman pulling into the pits after the warm-up lap. However, the Smiths BMW rider was handed a lifeline when a crash for Luke Mossey brought out red flags forcing a restart after just two laps.

Honda’s Jason O’Halloran made the most of a front row start to lead the opening stages of the re-started race, but McAMS Yamaha’s Josh Brookes was the man on the move as he moved ahead on the seventh lap.

Brookes looked comfortable out in front but after a steady start to the race, Haslam was ready to make his move, slipping past the Yamaha rider on the entry to turn one on lap 19.

Struggling with tyre wear, Brookes would drop back leaving team-mate Mackenzie to challenge Haslam and while the young gun put up a strong fight, it wasn’t enough to stop the series leader with the duo split by just 0.075 seconds across the line.

Jake Dixon was able to make the most of a tougher race for the RAF Regular and Reserves Kawasaki team to bag a podium on the final lap ahead of Be Wiser Ducati’s Glenn Irwin in fourth place.

Early leader O’Halloran finished ahead of arch-rival Josh Brookes, who slumped to sixth towards the end of the race.

Bradley Ray crossed the line seventh for Buildbase Suzuki ahead of team-mate Richard Cooper while Tommy Bridewell took ninth.

A heroic Christian Iddon was gutted with a tenth-place finish after running in the podium fight early on – which would have been enough to clinch him that final spot in the Showdown with Hickman suffering gear issues towards the end of the race. With Buchan 12^th and O’Halloran fifth, despite a non-points scoring finish Hickman had done enough to complete the Showdown Six.

With points adjusted for the Showdown, Haslam now leads Dixon by a whopping 45 points with Brookes and Ray tied in third four points behind.