Yamaha's Tommy Hill was fastest on Friday at the Snetterton 300 BSB round.

Swan Yamaha’s Tommy Hill stormed the second free practice session as he toppled Samsung Crescent Racing Suzuki’s John Hopkins in the dying seconds to end the opening day on the Snetterton 300 circuit fastest.

Hopkins took a commanding advantage in the opening session but this afternoon the American continued his run of form until the final lap from Hill who edged narrowly ahead of his title rival.

It was a frantic final five minutes as the positions continued to change as the pace increased towards the end of the session, with Josh Brookes and Relentless Suzuki firing up to third in the final minute as Loris Baz did the same to go fourth.

This bumped James Westmoreland down from second after he moved up the order with five minutes remaining.

Swan Yamaha’s Michael Laverty was another rider to make a final lap improvement to move sixth, whilst MSS Colchester Kawasaki’s Gary Mason got pushed back to seventh after an early top five slot.

HM Plant Honda’s Shane ‘Shakey’ Byrne had led early in the session but he was only able to finish eighth fastest ahead of Michael Rutter who had also run as high as second at the half-way stage on the Rapid Solicitors-Bathams Ducati.

Ryuichi Kiyonari was in tenth of the second HM Plant Honda whilst Graeme Gowland was the fastest of the Mirror.co.uk BSB Evo riders.

Australian Glen Richards was second in the EVO class during Friday practice.

In Supersport, Billy McConnell was top Australian with the seventh fastest time. Triumph teammate Paul Young was 20th.

The opening Superstock 1000 qualifying session of the weekend saw David Johnson in 17th position.

Ben Burke was 13th in Superstock 600 qualifying one.