ACTION PACKED QUALIFYING FOR HONDA RACING AT BRANDS HATCH

This afternoon qualifying took place for the third-round MCE British Superbike Championship at Brands Hatch and it was action packed for Honda Racing, who showed the finest display of teamwork going into the final session.

The first stage of qualifying saw all-three riders on track aboard their Honda CBR1000RR Fireblade machines, fighting hard to make it into the top 19 who would then progress into Q2. In a close field and a session masked with two red flags, Dan Linfoot and Jason O’Halloran made it into Q2, with team-mate Jenny Tinmouth out after finishing in 25th place, just 0.9 seconds from the leading rider.

Pushing hard throughout the second stage, Linfoot finished just outside the top-nine in 13th position and will start tomorrow’s first BSB race from the fifth row on the grid. However, drama unfolded for O’Halloran who was holding onto ninth place when he crashed out at Graham Hill Bend.

A superb display of teamwork was on show in the garage as the whole crew clubbed together to get O’Halloran’s crashed CBR repaired and back on-track in time for Q3. The ‘O’Show’ was sitting in ninth place as the green flag dropped and Q3 went live with the top-nine on track, fighting hard for the top spots.

With two minutes of the session remaining, the super-slick Honda crew roared O’Halloran’s Fireblade back into life and the Australian was back in contention and able to complete one flying lap. Unfortunately with the session coming to an end when O’Halloran went out, he wasn’t able to progress and will start tomorrow’s first race in ninth position.

The first British Superbike race is set to take place tomorrow (Sunday 22 May) at 13.30 with race two at 16.30.

Firstly I’d like to congratulate the whole team for clubbing together and helping Jason’s side get him and the Fireblade back in action for the final stage, it was close but the guys managed it, albeit only a flying lap for Jason but ninth on the grid for tomorrow under the circumstances isn’t bad! It’s been a bit of a tough weekend so far for us at Brands and not where we believe the riders and the team can be. With Jenny finishing her session in 25th and 0.9 seconds off the lead rider, it just shows how tight and close the field is at the Indy circuit. I’m hoping we can all turn it around for the two races tomorrow and finish with some solid results for all three riders.
Havier Beltran – Honda Racing team manager

If I’m honest I’m really disappointed with my weekend so far and the results I’ve been having are nothing to be proud of. Today in Q2 I finished 13th and didn’t make it into Q3 – I feel like I’m a back-marker out there and I’m not really sure what is going wrong. I’m feeling good and the CBR is strong, but the field is just so competitive here at the Indy circuit. A little tight track like this should really suit us, so we need revaluate and refocus ready for tomorrow. Jason made it into Q3, but has crashed twice this weekend, thankfully he’s OK but it just shows how hard we’re pushing here. But, tomorrow is a new day and I am looking forward to the two races and just hope we can pull together.
Dan Linfoot / #4

I had a really good qualifying session – although I would have liked to have had a shot in Q2 – I’m happy with my lap times and managed another personal best so happy with that! In my session I was only nine-tenths slower than the fastest rider, so it just shows how close it is here. I’m chuffed to bits with my lap time and am 1.2 seconds faster than last year. I had a little bit of time on track following some of the front runners, which was great to see what they are doing and to know that you’re not doing much different. The CBR feels mega as always and I’m now just looking forward to getting out tomorrow for the two races, and hopefully beating the PB I scored today.
Jenny Tinmouth / #20

I ended up P9 after qualifying today and made it through each of the sessions, which was good. Unfortunately towards the end of Q2 I made a small mistake and hit the kerb at Graham Hill and tucked the front, I knew I was in ninth place and needed to keep pushing as I didn’t want to drop out and miss the last stage of qualifying, but I hit the kerb and went down. I am pretty gutted for the whole team, I think we had a front or second row at least in us today; we have a good race pace for tomorrow and did a lot of 45’s in each stage of the qualifying, so race pace is good. A huge thanks to the whole team from my guys, to Dan’s guys and to Jenny’s guys, everyone chipped in and got us back out there and turned a crashed bike around in under ten minutes! We’ll be back tomorrow and hopefully get two good results!
Jason O’Halloran / #22

Qualifying