Brands Hatch - Noriyuki Haga top in first practice

Noriyuki Haga has topped the first free practice session for the Brands Hatch round of the World Superbike championship.

The time sheets were dominated by Japanese riders with Ryuichi Kiyonari taking the top spot of the first half of the session until he was knocked off by Haga.

Haga finished the session only nine hundredths of a second faster than Kiyo but a full 0.162 seconds ahead of third fastest rider, Ducati man Michel Fabrizio.

Troy Bayliss followed home his Ducati team-mate to take the fourth fastest lap ahead of Troy Corser and Ruben Xaus.

Wildcard Brit Tom Sykes was the lead Suzuki with an impressive seventh fastest time. Sykes is riding his British Superbike Rizla Suzuki GSX-R1000 with an engine still in BSB spec that is likely to be significanty down on power compared to the WSB machines.

Chris Walker took 16th place in his debut on the Paul Bird Motorsport Honda Fireblade, putting in a lap 1.213 seconds down on Haga.

Top 10 positions:
Noriyuki Haga
Ryuichi Kiyonari
Michel Fabrizio
Troy Bayliss
Troy Corser
Ruben Xaus
Tom Sykes
Fonsi Nieto
Karl Muggeridge
Max Biaggi


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