Christian Iddon continued his impressive form with the Tyco BMW team to end the opening day of free practice at Oulton Park fastest, in an incredibly close afternoon session as just 0.960s covered the top 17 riders on a dry track in Cheshire.

Iddon was instantly on the pace from the start of the session and continued to improve throughout the 45 minute afternoon free practice, constantly pushing to be a step ahead of his rivals in the dry conditions.

Iddon said: 

“I am happy to be P1 today especially as it was so close with the top 17 covered by less than a second; I haven’t done that for a while. In fact I am not sure I have even done that before! This morning we had difficult conditions and we thought it was going to try out more than it did so we didn’t change the set-up on the rear that much, so we still had a bit of a dry setting so I actually struggled a bit and had to ride harder on the front.

“This afternoon was pretty good really; I think the times are only going to get faster and we are already pretty quick. We are actually going to work on almost slowing her down a bit as around here because there are so many elevation changes; it is a lovely track but it is quite hard work! We want to make her a bit easier and then hopefully, fingers crossed we can stay P1!”

The pack behind were pushing to close the small deficit in the closest session of the season so far; the top ten continued to change but at the chequered flag it was Luke Mossey on the Quattro Plant Teccare Kawasaki who moved into second place in the final minutes of the sessions, pushing Richard Cooper back into third on the Buildbase BMW.

Alastair Seeley had another strong session for the Royal Air Force BMW squad, pushing forward into fourth position ahead of Tommy Bridewell as the Bennetts Suzuki contender climbed up the order, narrowly holding off Lee Jackson on the second of the Buildbase BMWs.

Danny Buchan was the top Ducati rider as the Lloyds British Moto Rapido Ducati rider leapt up to seventh in the closing stages, moving ahead of American John Hopkins on the ePayMe Yamaha and James Ellison on the leading JG Speedfit Kawasaki. Honda Racing’s Dan Linfoot completed the top ten, which featured all six of the manufacturers represented in the championship.

Glenn Irwin was the leading Be Wiser Ducati in eleventh place, with team-mate Shane 'Shakey' Byrne holding 15th position, 0.769s adrift of Iddon’s pace-setting time. The session had been briefly red flagged when Peter Hickman suffered a technical problem, he ended the afternoon just ahead of Byrne with Leon Haslam completing only eight laps to end the day in 22nd position.

MCE Insurance British Superbike Championship, Oulton Park, free practice two result:

Christian Iddon (Tyco BMW) 1m:35.215s
Luke Mossey (Quattro Plant Teccare Kawasaki) +0.028s
Richard Cooper (Buildbase BMW) +0.239s
Alastair Seeley (Royal Air Force BMW) +0.290s
Tommy Bridewell (Bennetts Suzuki) +0.310s
Lee Jackson (Buildbase BMW) +0.324s
Danny Buchan (Lloyds British Moto Rapido Ducati) +0.379s
John Hopkins (ePayMe Yamaha) +0.427s
James Ellison (JG Speedfit Kawasaki) +0.573s
Dan Linfoot (Honda Racing) +0.657s