O’Halloran tops Silverstone test from Linfoot, Brookes

Combined BSB test results from Silverstone

Jason O’Halloran has topped the final pre-season test at Silverstone ahead of the 2019 Bennetts British Superbike championship.

The new McAMS Yamaha signing produced a late flying lap of 54.372s to take the headlines, within three-tenths of the lap record around Silverstone’s National Circuit, having seen off a late challenge from former team-mate Dan Linfoot on the Santander Salt TAG Yamaha.

O’Halloran had earlier topped the second session of the Silverstone test which started in soaking wet conditions before gradually drying throughout the day to produce a completely dry circuit by the third session.

Josh Brookes, who topped the third session, placed his Be Wiser Ducati third on the overall times ahead of the highly-anticipated debut of the new V4 R following the domination Alvaro Bautista has produced so far with the bike in the World Superbike championship this year.

Luke Mossey slotted into fourth place for OMG Racing Suzuki ahead of Luke Stapleford on his return to BSB with Buildbase Suzuki.

New Honda recruit Andrew Irwin edged out Josh Elliott on the OMG Racing Suzuki as the pair both finished the test ahead of a number of big names.

Tarran Mackenzie, standout rookie from 2018, ended the Silverstone test in eighth place for McAMS Yamaha ahead of Xavi Fores, who topped the soaking wet opening session, before suffering a small off for Honda midway through the day.

Former MotoGP star Scott Redding rounded out the top 10 for Be Wiser Ducati ahead of FS-3 Racing Kawasaki’s Danny Buchan.

Rookies Ryan Vickers (RAF Regular and Reserves Kawasaki) and Joe Francis (Lloyd&Jones Bowker BMW) both suffered separate crashes at Maggotts, with the latter’s triggering a brief red flag in the final session, but both were confirmed as okay after trips to the circuit medical centre.

The 2019 BSB championship gets underway at Silverstone on April 19-21.