Bradley Ray was straight on the pace from the start of practice at Snetterton today, and that pace was blistering.

The McAMS rider was close to the BSB all time lap record at Snetterton, topping the Pre-Qualifying session at Snetterton by 0.474s from AJN Steelstock bimota’s Max Cook.

Ray had set the benchmark lap time early in the session, laying the gauntlet down to his rivals with a time that was just 0.078s adrift of the all-time fastest BSB lap at the Norfolk circuit.

Cook closed in the final minutes of the session, displacing reigning champion Kyle Ryde from second place as the Nitrous Coin Nitrous Competitions Racing contender completed the top three.

Leon Haslam was fourth fastest for the Moto Rapido Racing team, moving ahead of Scott Redding and the Hager PBM Racing Team, who had set the pace in the opening Free Practice session this morning.

Christian Iddon had a strong session in sixth place for the Sencat Racing Yamaha team, holding off Storm Stacey and Glenn Irwin with Danny Kent completing the top ten.

Speaking after an excellent day, Ray said: “It has been a solid day; straight away in FP1 I felt comfortable. I had some discs to bed in this morning and then got into a rhythm straight away and was fast. I think maybe it is a little bit easier for me coming here on the same bike as last year, with Max and Kyle both on new bikes.

“Overall I am super happy; we made a few changes in FP2 and we went in a direction that didn’t feel that comfortable, so we went back to something that was more suited to me. There are a few areas I still want to improve for race distance more than anything and we will roll on again tomorrow!

“I was quite surprised with the lap times today, but it came quite quickly from this morning and we could get into a rhythm. It is definitely nice to end today fastest ahead of tomorrow.”

Images courtesy of Colin Port Images