Milwaukee Yamaha's Josh Brookes hit the top of the timesheets in the second MCE Insurance British Superbike Championship test session at Oulton Park this afternoon (Friday), closing in on last year's pole position time by 0.015s to head off Stuart Easton.

Defending champion Shane 'Shakey' Byrne started the session by setting the initial pace, but soon his team-mate Stuart Easton nudged him back down the order as he took command at the top of the timesheets.

Easton continued to make steps forward to hold on to second place at the end of the session but the Milwaukee Yamaha of Brookes stormed ahead to set the benchmark at the chequered flag.

Brookes said:

"It is a positive and negative at the moment because when you go fast straight away its harder to find more speed - the closer you get to the limit, the harder it is to make improvements. But the good thing is we have come from pre-season testing, then to Donington and Brands Hatch and now to here, and the bike has worked consistently at all three which are really different tracks.

"Here it is like a rollercoaster because it has ups and downs and undulations, off and on camber corners, so to stay consistent is the first of many good signs, so from there we are steadily adjusting spring and preload to see how that felt.

"We are doing a really typical day at work really and we are leading the times after the second session and that is a good sign and it will be hard to improve without sacrificing something else but we are confident we can tailor some more areas, but it is up to me to put in a smooth, fast lap. If I put all my best sectors together it is faster than my best lap so that is down to me not matching up so it is down to me now."

Ryuichi Kiyonari had a stronger session as he climbed the order to third in the closing stages ahead of Byrne who dropped to fourth. The pair had pushed James Ellison back to fifth after he had topped the opening morning session for the JG Speedfit Kawasaki team ahead of Tommy Bridewell and Honda Racing's Jason O'Halloran.

Michael Laverty made it two Tyco BMWs in the top ten in eighth ahead of Peter Hickman and James Westmoreland with Broc Parkes narrowly missing out in eleventh.

MCE Insurance British Superbike Championship, Oulton Park, Official Test:

Josh Brookes (Milwaukee Yamaha) 1m:35.478s
Stuart Easton (PBM Kawasaki) +0.051s
Ryuichi Kiyonari (Buildbase BMW) +0.169s
Shane Byrne (PBM Kawasaki) +0.253s
James Ellison (JG Speedfit Kawasaki) +0.343s
Tommy Bridewell (Tyco BMW) +0.786s
Jason O'Halloran (Honda Racing) +0.987s
Michael Laverty (Tyco BMW) +1.197s
Peter Hickman (RAF Reserves BMW) +1.223s
James Westmoreland (JG Speedfit Kawasaki) +1.397s