Redding holds off Brookes to claim Donington pole position

Scott Redding will start from pole position for tomorrow’s opening Bennetts British Superbike Championship race at Donington Park after edging out his Be Wiser Ducati teammate Josh Brookes in Datatag Qualifying as the pair fight for the advantage in the Showdown.

The final stage of Datatag Qualifying began with Luke Mossey at the top, but it wasn’t long before Be Wiser Ducati’s Brookes had fired himself to the top of the times as the eight minute session counted down rapidly.

Buildbase Suzuki’s Bradley Ray was then on a string of fast laps which saw him climb the order and grab the leading position, but just a moment later Redding had delivered the fastest lap of the weekend so far to claim his fifth qualifying pole position of the season as Brookes surged into second.

Redding said: “It’s always good to be on pole position. Q3 was quite good; I had to really push quite hard because Q1 and 2 I didn’t feel that great with the bike and the grip. I didn’t want to change too much because I know the base is not bad.

"Josh was stepping up the pace so I thought inside of me I have got more, so in the Q3 we just made a small little change and I kept working away at the lap time. I thought now I’ve just got to do what I really can do and put it on the line, and to get the pole position lap is obviously really good and sets us up for the races tomorrow.”

Ray completed the front row for tomorrow’s opening race, just ahead of Mossey who had his best qualifying performance of the season for OMG Racing Suzuki in fourth place to head the second row.

Christian Iddon led the Tyco BMW charge to start from the second row in fifth place with Luke Stapleford completing top six on the second of the Buildbase Suzukis.

Showdown contender Tommy Bridewell was seventh fastest with the Oxford Racing Ducati team, holding off his Title Fighter rival Peter Hickman on the Smiths Racing BMW.

Taylor Mackenzie impressed by claiming a place in Q3 on his debut for Tyco BMW, pushing his Showdown contending brother Tarran Mackenzie into tenth at the end of Q2. It was a tough session for the FS-3 Racing Kawasaki’s Danny Buchan, who was the sixth placed of the Showdown six on the times as he will start 13th on the grid for tomorrow’s first race.

Bennetts British Superbike Championship, Donington Park, Datatag Qualifying:

1. Scott Redding (Be Wiser Ducati) 1m:28.403s
2. Josh Brookes (Be Wiser Ducati) +0.429s
3. Bradley Ray (Buildbase Suzuki) +0.542s
4. Luke Mossey (OMG Racing Suzuki) +0.665s
5. Christian Iddon (Tyco BMW) +0.729s
6. Luke Stapleford (Buildbase Suzuki) +0.856s
7. Tommy Bridewell (Oxford Racing Ducati) +0.896s
8. Peter Hickman (Smiths Racing BMW) +0.926s
9. Taylor Mackenzie (Tyco BMW) +1.519s