Qualifying abandoned as weather shakes up BSB Donington Park schedule
2020 BSB Donington Park - Grid Positions
The penultimate round of the 2020 British Superbike Championship has been turned on its head as organisers scrapped qualifying and brought race one forward amid concerns over weather conditions at Donington Park.
With persistent rain scheduled throughout the day, race one has been shifted to the 12.20pm slot that would have been occupied by qualifying. Instead, grid positions for what is still expected to be a wet race one have been determined by Friday’s combined free practice times.
It means Josh Brookes starts on pole position in what will be a crucial race for the four leading protagonists, of which he is one.
Coming into the race, Glenn Irwin maintains a lead he has held since the opening round aboard the Honda, but faces closing opposition from Jason O’Halloran - a double winner last time out at Oulton Park - just two points adrift, while VisionTrack Ducati duo Brookes and Christian Iddon are third and fourth, 10 and 12 points off respectively.
Of the quartet it is O’Halloran with the most work to do this afternoon coming from ninth on the grid, while Brookes, Irwin and Iddon start up front in first, second and fourth. Andrew Irwin gets between them in third on the second of the Honda pair.
Hector Barbera will start in fifth place on the Rich Energy OMG BMW, ahead of Tommy Bridewell, who is still is range of the title leaders but now 44 points adrift.
FS-3 Racing duo Lee Jackson and Danny Buchan start just ahead of McAMS Yamaha’s O’Halloran in seventh and eighth, while Kyle Ryde - a double winner at Silverstone - is the best of the Suzuki riders in tenth.
