Top seven riders set times beneath the lap record.
Michael Laverty proved he is ready to come out fighting for the penultimate round of the MCE British Superbike Championship at Silverstone, firing his Tyco BMW inside the existing lap record.
Laverty fought off the determined challenges of the MCE Insurance British Superbike Championship leader Josh Brookes by just 0.074 seconds.
The top seven riders on the timesheet had blasted to times within the circuit lap record with a top 10 that featured six different manufacturers.
Laverty scored his first podium finish of the season at the opening Showdown round of Assen last time out and admits he is ready to take the fight to his Australian rival in Sunday’s two races to maintain his outside hopes of taking the title.
James Ellison was narrowly adrift of Laverty and Brookes in third place on the JG Speedfit Kawasaki, just holding off John Hopkins by 0.003s. The American contender had set the pace in the morning session aboard the Lloyds British Moto Rapido Ducati.
Their pace pushed the defending four-time champion Shane ‘Shakey’ Byrne back into fifth place on the time-sheets aboard his PBM Kawasaki as he prepares to strike back and bid for victory on Sunday to try and close the 28 points deficit he has on arch rival Brookes in his ‘strive for five’ titles.
Rookie Luke Mossey on the Quattro Plant Kawasaki set the sixth best time ahead of Jakub Smrz aboard the second Milwaukee Yamaha.
Danny Buchan, making his debut for the PBM Kawasaki team pushed ahead of Honda Racing’s title outsider Dan Linfoot whilst Bennetts Suzuki rider Christian Iddon completed the top 10, five places ahead of Tyco BMW’s Title Fighter Tommy Bridewell.
Second of the Bennetts Suzukis, Josh Waters, was 11th quickest on day one, with fellow Aussie Billy McConnell (Smiths Racing BMW) 17th and Jed Metcher (Gearlink Kawasaki) 24th.