Dan Linfoot will start tomorrow’s opening 20-lap MCE British Superbike Championship race at Brands Hatch from the front row of the grid, after placing his Fireblade third in this afternoon’s qualifying session. Team-mate Jason O’Halloran will start from 12th place.

The three-stage qualifying session got underway in tricky conditions at the 2.4332-mile Kent circuit after heavy rain delayed the afternoon’s events. Honda Racing’s Linfoot made his way into qualifying confident after placing second in the morning’s free practice.

With the hard work of the Honda team clearly paying off with the all-new Fireblade, the Yorkshireman made his way through each stage of qualifying to wrap up the final session of the day third fastest, completing the front row.

Meanwhile team-mate O’Halloran’s qualifying came to an early end after finishing 12th in the second session, where he lines up for tomorrow’s first race. It’s been a mixed weekend so far for The O’Show after a crash in yesterday’s FP2 lost the Aussie valuable track time, O’Halloran was unhurt after the fall.

The schedule for the sixth round MCE British Superbike Championship at Brands Hatch tomorrow sees race one due to take place at 1315 and race two at 1615.


Dan Linfoot / #4  

Well today has been pretty positive! I finished Q3 in third place, which is my best result so far this year, so I have got a smile on my face. I have a good feeling with the Fireblade and I am starting to feel it’s all coming together now. The start of the season was a bit tough, but everything is improving, I am learning and developing at each race. I am looking forward to tomorrow, I hope we have two dry races – I had a good finish in practice this morning in the dry where I was second fastest, so it’s looking positive and I am looking forward to starting from the front row tomorrow.

Jason O'Halloran / #22
   
It’s been a hard weekend really, FP1 started good and I finished in fifth place. I then missed a lot of FP2 after an early crash and then in FP3 we tried to make up the time we lost in the second session, we also tried a lot of things, which didn’t work in our favour. Qualifying was wet and I did feel OK, but I just struggled with grip, which I have been all weekend to be honest. So tomorrow the aim is to try and find some grip and improve our pace to come through from the fourth row.

  
Havier Beltran - Honda Racing team manager  
   
I’m so happy for Dan, he’s been working hard with the team and it’s all starting to click, we now need to translate this into two solid results tomorrow at Brands. I am feeling for Jason, after crashing out in FP2 yesterday, he’s lost valuable track time and it has put him on the back-foot, but I am confident that come the races he can be strong. He is a strong rider so I know that he can push through and be back with the front group. I think the direction we’re going in with all-new Fireblade for both riders is coming together and they are feeling good, we now need further results and I am confident of this come race day tomorrow.