Brookes quickest in red flag strewn FP1 session

Click here for full BSB FP1 results from Oulton Park

Josh Brookes has opened up top in first free practice for the second round of the 2019 Bennetts British Superbike Championship at Oulton Park in a session hampered by multiple red flag periods.

Picking up from where he left off in testing at the Cheshire circuit last week, the former champion topped the timesheets once more on the Be Wiser Ducati Panigale V4 R to lead Peter Hickman and Danny Buchan.

Looking to recover ground to his main rivals after failing to register a score during the season opener at Silverstone, Brookes was in impressive form throughout despite three red flag periods interrupting the session.

These included incidents for Quattro Plant JG Speedfit Kawasaki’s Ben Currie and Gearlink Kawasaki’s Fraser Rogers following falls at Shell and Water Tower respectively. Both riders are set to be transferred to hospital with Currie understood to have sustained a fracture to his right leg, with Rogers suffering a fracture to his right arm.

Behind Brookes, Hickman demonstrated an impressive upturn in performance aboard the Smiths Racing BMW, with the 2018 Title Showdown contender a mere tenth adrift of the top spot on the latest generation S1000RR.

Buchan headed up the Kawasaki challenge in third on the FS-3 ZX-10R, followed by two more Silverstone standouts in Jason O’Halloran and Tommy Bridewell on their respective McAMS Yamaha and Oxford Racing Ducati.

With cooler conditions and interruptions preventing the riders from matching testing pace last week, Scott Redding continued to enjoy his Oulton Park initiation in sixth position followed by Glenn Irwin, Luke Mossey and Christian Iddon.

Joint top of the overall leaderboard after sharing the spoils at Silverstone, Josh Elliott and Tarran Mackenzie turned in the tenth and 11th quickest lap times, albeit 1.5secs shy of Brookes’ benchmark.