BSB Brands Hatch Results, Race 3 - A perfect Sunday

Round seven of the 2023 British Superbike Championship takes the series to Brands Hatch for the first time this season, and the GP layout which is now the only one in use by BSB. This page will be updated with BSB Brands Hatch results throughout the weekend.

Overview

Race 3 - Bridewell completes Sunday double at Brands despite Irwin pressure

Race 2 - Bridewell dominant as Iddon, Kent return to the podium

Race 1 - Vickers takes debut win in shortened, wet Race 1

Qualifying - Bridewell dominates wet qualifying as Superpole cancelled

FP2 - Top 10 covered by half-a-second at the end of day one, with Vickers fastest of all

FP1 - Brookes the only rider under 1:26 to top FP1 in Brands Hatch

Race 3

Tommy Bridewell started from pole position in BSB Race 3 at Brands Hatch but, after winning Race 2 quite comfortably, his Race 3 victory came with a much larger challenge from his rivals.

Although it was Bridewell who started from pole, it was Danny Kent who made the holeshot for the second time on Sunday.

In fact, Bridewell was shuffled back to third place early on, while Christian Iddon took the lead from Kent on lap three.

Credit:Mar-Train Racing.

By half-distance, Iddon and the two PBM Ducatis of Bridewell and Glenn Irwin had got to the front, but Ryan Vickers on the OMG Yamaha, and the aforementioned Kent on his own Kent Lovell Racing Honda, were remaining in touch to make the front group five-strong.

Bridewell made his move to the front on lap 12, but by lap 16 he was still unable to pull away, and the front five remained together. 

A couple of laps later, though, and Bridewell began to push the pace, but as he pulled away from those behind, he took Irwin with him.

Their battle went down to the last lap, onto which Bridewell led. Despite the best efforts of Irwin, he was never in a position to make a move on his teammate, who took his fifth win in six races.

Irwin, in truth, did well to hold onto second place, because Ryan Vickers put in two stunning laps on the 19th and 20th tours to be right on the rear wheel of the #2 Ducati at the line. In the end, Vickers’ late push was only enough for third, but it was also statement.

Christian Iddon and Danny Kent missed out on the podium each for the first time this weekend in fourth and fifth, respectively, while Jason O’Halloran rounded out the top six.

Lee Jackson resumed his almost customary position of seventh, and top Kawasaki, while Leon Haslam (8th), Charlie Nesbitt (9th), and Max Cook (10th) rounded out the top 10, with 10th place being a career best for Cook.

Full BSB results from Race 3 at Brands Hatch are below.

 

2023 BSB Brands Hatch Results | Race 2

Race 2

Unlike Saturday, Sunday saw dry conditions for the BSB field in Brands Hatch, and Race 2 took place in perfect conditions. For Tommy Bridewell, it was slightly more perfect than for his opposition, as he took a dominant win.

Although it was Christian Iddon who started from pole position, it was Danny Kent who made the holeshot, while yesterday's winner, Ryan Vickers, slotted into third place. Iddon, though, reclaimed the lead by the start of lap two.

It took until lap seven for the front group to begin to splinter, but it also saw the safety car deployed after Dean Harrison crashed, dislodging dislodging much of the air fence at Paddock Hill.

Credit: McAMS Yamaha.

When the safety car came out, Kent had got himself back to the front, but he was pushed back to third place by the end of lap 10, the first one after the safety car returned to the pits, as both Iddon and Tommy Bridewell pushed forwards.

Bridewell got himself to the front on lap 12, and immediately set the fastest lap of the race. By the end, his advantage was over two seconds, as he took his fourth win from the last four dry races.

The battle for second was much less certain than that for the win, as Iddon led a four-way battle onto the final lap. In the end, though, none of the three riders behind Iddon were able to pass either each other or the #24, so the Oxford Products Ducati rider held onto his second podium of the season, and of the weekend.

Similarly, Danny Kent took third place to match Iddon's aforementioned podium statistics, while Glenn Irwin (4th), Ryan Vickers (5th), and Jason O'Halloran (6th) completed the top six.

Kyle Ryde was seventh, ahead of Lee Jackson (8th, top Kawasaki), Josh Brookes (9th, top BMW), and Jack Kennedy (10th), who rounded out the top 10.

 

Full BSB results from Race 2 in Brands Hatch are below.

2023 BSB Brands Hatch Results | Race 2

Race 1

The rain that began to fall before BSB Superpole on Saturday was still falling by the time the riders were back on the grid for Race 1. Tommy Bridewell started from pole position, but it was Ryan Vickers who took the win.

UPDATE, 23 July 2023: The results of  Race 1 were amended on Sunday morning, with Leon Haslam excluded from the results for having been judged to have caused the red flag which ended the race.

It was Bridewell who made the holeshot but, although he led the first lap, he was back to third by the beginning of lap three, as Ryan Vickers and Danny Kent made their way forwards.

Soon, Vickers and Kent were pulling away at the front, but, just as the race was evolving into a duel between the two of them, the red flag was thrown for oil on the exit of Surtees.

Credit: Mar-Train Racing.

The result of the race was declared after the red flag, with half-points awarded, which meant Vickers took his first BSB race win, ahead of Danny Kent, who took his first podium, and Christian Iddon, who was on the box for the first time this season.

Jack Kennedy took his best BSB result with fourth place, ahead of Jason O’Halloran (5th) and Leon Haslam (6th).

Tommy Bridewell slipped from the lead to seventh, while Storm Stacey had a strong ride to eighth, in front of Peter Hickman (9th) and Glenn Irwin (10th) who rounded out the top 10.

Full BSB results from Race 1 in Brands Hatch are below.

2023 BSB Brands Hatch Results | Race 1

Qualifying

British Superbike qualifying at Brands Hatch saw the return of the Superpole format, meaning that Kyle Ryde perhaps entered as the favourite, having taken pole position the last time it was used at Donington. But rain meant the one-shot format was dropped in favour of a 12-minute session, which was topped by Tommy Bridewell who took pole position.

Q1 took place before the rain arrived which would put pay to the planned Superpole session. It saw Charlie Nesbitt, Jack Kennedy, and Max Cook all advance to what became and effective Q2 session, which was initially delayed for rain before riders headed out on wet weather tyres.

The lap times scrolled throughout the session as the riders grew in confidence, but it was Tommy Bridewell who showed his advantage. His pole position margin was 0.643 in the end, with only  Ryan Vickers within one second of the #46.

Credit: McAMS Yamaha.

Second place for Vickers puts him in the middle of the front row for Race 1 later on Saturday, while Josh Brookes took third place to out that first row.

Jack Kennedy will head up row two in fourth place, ahead of Leon Haslam (5th) and Danny Kent (6th, top Honda).

On row three, Glenn Irwin will start seventh on the second PBM Ducati, alongside the two Yamaha contenders, Kyle Ryde (8th) and Jason O’Halloran (9th).

Peter Hickman rounded out the qualifying top 10, and will start from the front of row four alongside Christian Iddon (11th) and Charlie Nesbitt (12th); while Lee Jackson (13th, top Kawasaki), Max Cook (14th) and Danny Buchan (15th) make up row five.

Full BSB results from qualifying in Brands Hatch are below.

2023 BSB Brands Hatch Results | Qualifying

FP2

After BSB FP1 in Brands Hatch, Josh Brookes was the only rider to lap in under 1:26, but after FP2 the entire top 10 was inside the 86-second mark. Fastest of them all was Ryan Vickers, who goes into Saturday on top.

Every rider improved in FP2 compared to FP1, in fact almost all riders did so within the first 20 minutes of the session; only Dean Harrison and Josh Brookes, who topped FP1, had not improved before the final 20 minutes of Friday got underway. That eventually changed for both of them, though, confirming improvements for all 25 riders.

Credit: FHO Racing.

For Brookes it worked out better than for Harrison, though, with the Australian finishing the day fifth overall, 0.262 seconds off the top, while Harrison ended up 17th as the fastest rider to be more than one second slower than fastest time. 

That fastest time was a 1:25.138 by Ryan Vickers, further confirming the speed that has been present for the #7 since Donington. 

His gap over second-placed Tommy Bridewell was 0.081 seconds, while Jason O’Halloran was third, also within a tenth of fellow Yamaha rider Vickers.

Danny Kent had a solid day in the county not of his birth but of his name, finishing fourth and as the fastest Honda, and ahead of the aforementioned Brookes (5th), and Lee Jackson (6th, top Kawasaki) who completed the top six.

Christian Iddon was seventh, ahead of Danny Buchan who had a strong first day back from his nasty Snetterton crash by finishing eighth. Two more BMWs came directly behind him, with Peter Hickman (9th) ahead of Leon Haslam (10th).

It was a difficult FP2 for Glenn Irwin, but 11th place guarantees him a place in Superpole tomorrow regardless, as does 12th for Kyle Ryde.

Full BSB results from FP2, and the combined times from Friday's two practice sessions, in Brands Hatch are below.

2023 BSB Brands Hatch Results | FP2

2023 BSB Brands Hatch Results | Combined FP

FP1

FP1 for the British Superbike Championship at Brands Hatch GP got the weekend off to a dry start, although a red flag interruption meant it was not a totally clean session. It was topped by Josh Brookes, and only 0.5 seconds covered the top 10.

It was a strong start to the weekend for the PBM Ducati team, which is beginning to seem - at this stage in the season - like the dominant force in the series once again. Not a status the squad is unfamiliar with, but one which it has perhaps missed since Josh Brookes won the 2020 title. 

Credit: Mar-Train Racing

Its riders, Tommy Bridewell and Glenn Irwin, both found themselves in the top positions early in the session, confirming that once again they would be the riders to beat this weekend in Brands Hatch.

Bridewell had taken himself to the top of the timesheets with 10 minutes to go in the session, when the red flag was thrown. The cause was a crash for Liam Delves, who has switched from Rapid CDH Kawasaki to TAG Racing Honda in place of the injured Hector Barbera for this weekend, and who was reportedly okay.

At the resumption of the session, following the red flag, the top of the session looked rather ominous, with Bridewell and Irwin joined in the top three positions by fellow Ducati rider Christian Iddon, on the Oxford Products machine. However, some Yamahas soon disrupted the Ducati hegemony, with Jason O’Halloran and Kyle Ryde both inserting themselves in the top four, before Josh Brookes went fastest on the FHO BMW.

Instead of a Ducati walkover, the weekend suddenly looked to have more parity in the final minutes of FP1.

Indeed, with only half-a-second covering the top 10 at the end of the first session of the weekend, the margins are very tight.

Speaking of the top 10, it was bookended by Josh Brookes and Charlie Nesbitt, two riders probably at quite different points in their respective careers, although both trying to build themselves up.

For Brookes’ part, he was over a-tenth-of-a-second clear of second place, that being the Yamaha of Jason O’Halloran, in what was a strong end to FP1 for the two-time champion. Bridewell, who had topped the session earlier on, finished it in third, almost a-quarter-of-a-second down on Brookes.

Ryan Vickers took fourth place, continuing his run of showing impressive and encouraging speed in recent rounds, while his teammate, Kyle Ryde, was fifth as he looks to bounce back from what was a difficult round in Snetterton.

Glenn Irwin rounded out the top six, ahead of Lee Jackson who has seemingly become ‘Mr. Seventh Place’ in recent rounds, presumably much to his frustration. The top-placed Kawasaki rider was ahead of Danny Kent (8th, top Honda), Christian Iddon (9th), and the aforementioned Nesbitt (10th), who rounded out the top 10.

Full BSB results from FP1 in Brands Hatch are below.

2023 BSB Brands Hatch Results | FP1                   

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