Simon Andrews was on fine form as the fifth round of the ViSK.com British Superbike Championship got underway at Snetterton, the MSS Colchester Kawasaki rider setting the quickest time.

Climbing the leaderboard with ten minutes of the session remaining, Andrews went on to further lower his best lap to 1min 05.939secs – the only lap to dip beneath the 1min 06secs marker.

"The bike's awesome and doing everything I'm asking of it. It's too windy out there to really push but it's obviously the same for everyone. How good's that? A green bike up front at long last!"

In a session that was stopped twice, Andrews' best was enough to edge out Hydrex Honda pair Karl Harris and Stuart Easton, the latter having led the way for much of the session before slipping to the third best time.

Michael Rutter began his quest to score a podium for the Worx Crescent Suzuki team in fine fashion in fourth, ahead of championship leader and six-time winner Leon Camier on the Airwaves Yamaha.

HM Plant Honda riders Glen Richards and Josh Brookes were also among the pace setters early on before dropping to sixth and seventh, while Chris Walker, Julien Da Costa and Jon Kirkham – on his first appearance aboard the North West 200 Yamaha – rounded out the top ten.

Runaway championship leader Gary Mason set the pace in the Cup category with the 12th fastest time overall.