John Hopkins set the fastest ever MCE Insurance British Superbike Championship lap of Donington Park this morning as the ePayMe Yamaha rider fired ahead of title contender Shane 'Shakey' Byrne by 0.166s as the pace intensified ahead of Datatag Qualifying.

Initially Luke Mossey set one of the first flying laps of the session ahead of standings leader Leon Haslam, Hopkins and James Ellison, but the JG Speedfit Kawasaki rider crashed with 30 minutes of the session remaining at the Fogarty Esses. Ellison was unable to rejoin the session as the team worked to repair the bike, leaving him 16th at the chequered flag.

Byrne then was on the attack as he moved from outside the top ten, into eighth and then within a handful of laps was back at the top, but only by a 0.070s margin from Mossey with just under half an hour of the session remaining.

Christian Iddon, the fastest rider on track yesterday, was also bidding to move up the order, but the Tyco BMW rider crashed out unhurt at Goddards. There was little damage to the Tyco BMW and he was later able to rejoin the session, finishing eighth fastest as he bids to be a Showdown spoiler this weekend.

Jason O'Halloran was pushing to bounce back from his crashes yesterday and the Honda Racing rider moved up into the top five with 20 minutes on the clock, however as the pace rapidly tumbled he later dropped to ninth, with his Showdown contending team-mate Dan Linfoot just ahead in sixth place.

The Title Fighters were all scrapping for the advantage ahead of Datatag Qualifying and Shakey was holding the leading position as the final three minutes of the session approached, but Hopkins was on a flier and the American surged ahead with Peter Hickman also leaping the order to third.

Mossey ended the session fourth fastest ahead of rival Kawasaki rider Haslam, with Richard Cooper holding seventh place for Buildbase BMW and Tommy Bridewell completing the top ten.

MCE Insurance British Superbike Championship, Donington Park, Free Practice three:

John Hopkins (ePayMe Yamaha) 1m:28.856s
Shane Byrne (Be Wiser Ducati) +0.166s
Peter Hickman (JG Speedfit Kawasaki) +0.276s
Luke Mossey (Quattro Plant Teccare Kawasaki) +0.282s
Leon Haslam (JG Speedfit Kawasaki) +0.322s
Dan Linfoot (Honda Racing) +0.470s
Richard Cooper (Buildbase BMW) +0.529s
Christian Iddon (Tyco BMW) +0.625s
Jason O'Halloran (Honda Racing) +0.758s
Tommy Bridewell (Bennetts Suzuki) +0.758s