2024 British Superbikes: Donington Park (Showdown) - Qualifying Results

Kyle Ryde cemented his dominant return to Donington Park, with pole position at the tenth round of the championship, as BSBqualified for the second Showdown round.

Friday had seen the OMG Grilla rider take over from the morning FP1 leader Glenn Irwin in the second session, to head directly to Q2 with the top time at his home circuit.

Back on track non Saturday the #77 set out a statement of intent by dominating the brief FP3 session right before qualifying.

Immediately setting out a timesheet topping benchmark on his first run, Ryde went on to lower his lap repeatedly, finishing with a best of 1m 27.428s for pole, sat in the pits as the clock ticked down and his rivals played catch-up.

It was a late effort from Danny Kent which brought him closest. The fellow Yamaha rider had worked his way up to fourth before a final push on his McAMS bike brought him to within 0.120s.

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Josh Brookes also gave late chase, moving from twelfth to second in the final four minutes, with only Kent pushing him back, earning the FHO Racing rider a front row start on his BMW.

Charlie Nesbitt was heading in the right direction as he claimed fourth for MasterMac Honda, with the remaining title rivals joining him on row two.

Fresh from his WSBK appearance in Cremona, and with another appearance in the championship booked, title leader Tommy Bridewell hoped the data gained from his extra racing would be beneficial.

Both rider and team seemed happy with the progress made as the title hunt comes to a head, but that didn’t translate to one lap pace. With Ryde out front on pole, the #1 plated Honda has work to do from fifth.

Glenn Irwin still holds on to his title aspirations, though he is now a distant 45 points away from Bridewell. The PBM rider will also need to make quick progress in race one as he saw his march forward stall in sixth in Q2.

Leon Haslam placed a solid seventh for his own ROKiT Haslam Racing team, with Lee Jackson climbing to eighth on the second MasterMac Motorcycle.

Andrew Irwin will fill ninth on the grid on the second Honda UK machine, while Christian Iddon put in the most laps, but never beat his own early banker lap, leaving him tenth for Oxford Products Ducati.

It was Ryan Vickers who chased down Ryde’s FP2 time to finish second best closing down the gap to his teammate on Friday. Qualifying was a different story, with the second OMG Yamaha a best of eleventh.

Jason O’Halloran, who took a entertaining win at Donington in BSB’s first visit of the season, was the best of the rider to graduate from Q1, in twelfth for Completely Motorbikes, as the highest qualifying Kawasaki.

Official British Superbike Donington Park Records:

Lap record: Leon Haslam (BMW, 2023) 1m 27.523s

Donington Park in 2023:

Round 2
Superpole Qualifying: 
1: Kyle Ryde
2: Leon Haslam
3: Jason O’Halloran

Race 1 (Sprint):
1: Kyle Ryde
2: Tommy Bridewell
3: Leon Haslam

Race 2:
1: Jason O’Halloran
2: Ryan Vickers
3: Josh Brookes

Race 3:
1: Kyle Ryde
2: Tommy Bridewell
3: Glenn Irwin

Round 10 (showdown):
Qualifying:
1: Jason O’Halloran
2: Tommy Bridewell
3: Leon Haslam

Race 1 (sprint):
1: Ryan Vickers
2: Leon Haslam
3: Luke Mossey

Race 2: 
1: Kyle Ryde
2: Leon Haslam
3: Christian Iddon

Race 3:
1: Jason O’Halloran
2: Christian Iddon

Main Season 2024:

Qualifying:
1: Ryan Vickers
2: Kyle Ryde
3: Leon Haslam

Race 1:
1:Kyle Ryde
2:Tommy Bridewell
3: Glenn Irwin

Race 2 (Sprint):
1: Glenn Irwin
2: Leon Haslam
3:Tommy Bridewell

Race 3:
1:Jason O’Halloran
2: Tommy Bridewell
3: Danny Kent

Q1- Technical Issues see Hickman miss out and Skinner miss session

Falls for Storm Stacey, Rory Skinner and Jason O’Halloran left them off the pace and needing a trip though Q1.

Jason O’Halloran left it late to grab fresh tyres and go back out on track, with his last flying lap moving him up from tenth to first in the first part of qualifying.

The Australian pushed back his teammate Max Cook (14th), who joined him in progressing, along with top Pathway rider Lewis Rollo (13th) on the Aprilia.

Peter Hickman just missed out - the FHO Racing rider had gone top three when his gear lever came away from his bike, leaving him to watch as his time slipped to fourth for 16th on the grid.

Storm Stacey also failed to move on finishing the session in sixth, behind Bradley Perie.

There are several personnel changes heading towards the end of the season.

Tom Ward is back in the seat at Rapid Honda, as after a attempting a comeback from his hand injury too soon, Franco Bourne is back on the sidelines. The best of the replacement riders, he starts 19th.

IWR Honda have opted for the experienced James Westmoreland to take over where Richard Kerr left off. The former BSB regular and Supersport runner-up placed 11th in Q1 for 23rd.

NP Racing have instead opted to employ a rookie to fill the space left by Louis Valleley, bringing in current Spanish Superstock rider Corey Tinker for his championship debut. Tinker has previous experience riding on British tracks thanks to his time in the British Talent Cup, but was almost five seconds off the pace in the first qualifying session.

Danny Buchan misses the Showdown Donington weekend. Jaimie van Sikkelerus was on track on Friday but withdrew as he had come back too soon and was not fit to continue. Rory Skinner missed qualifying after a technical issue saw him stop in the Esses in FP3.