Scott Redding storms to Thruxton pole
Be Wiser Ducati’s Scott Redding claimed his third pole position of the 2019 Bennetts British Superbike Scott ReddingChampionship when he topped the Datatag Extreme Qualifying session at the Thruxton circuit in Hampshire this afternoon with team-mate Josh Brookes claiming fourth position.
The local ace from Quedgeley in Gloucestershire had once again quickly got to grips with another circuit he was seeing for the first time and after the three free practice sessions, he was quickest on the combined times with a lap of 1m 14.916s giving him a 0.189s advantage over Danny Buchan. Aussie Brookes was in seventh overall but only four tenths of a second in arrears.
Qualifying got underway under cloudy skies and both riders, as expected, comfortably progressed from Q1, with the duo doing all they needed to do on the factory-supported Be Wiser Ducati Panigale V4 R during the 18-minute session.
Q2 was held over the shorter period of 12 minutes and saw Redding and Brookes up their tempo and they went first and third quickest after just their first flying lap. Brookes’ second lap saw him overhaul his team-mate but although Honda’s Andrew Irwin went to the top of the leaderboard, second and third quickest overall saw Josh and Scott progress to the all-important Q3.
Spots of rain delayed the final session slightly and it was subsequently increased from eight minutes to 12 with lap times initially more than four seconds slower than what they had been previously. However, the track rapidly dried and it was Redding who went quickest with two rapid laps putting him over half a second clear of Peter Hickman. Brookes, meanwhile, opted to stay in the pits for the first half of the session but his first flying lap saw him leap up to fourth.
Tommy Bridewell briefly knocked Redding off the top spot, but the former GP ace immediately retaliated and a lap of 1m 14.803s ultimately sealed his third pole position. 2015 BSB champion Brookes remained in fourth which will see him start tomorrow’s race from the head of the second row.
Scott Redding:
“It was a bit scary out there when the raindrops began to fall and although many people had told me how much grip the circuit has, when you’re doing 150mph and there’s rain on your visor, it’s not that easy! I wasn’t sure how much grip there would be or how the bike would work and although I stayed out a bit longer than I intended initially, it all worked out well in the end. I wasn’t expecting pole so it’s nice to get the job done and start tomorrow’s first race from the top spot.”