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British Superbike Championship title fighter Alex Lowes has emerged as the early rider to beat at
Silverstone after completing the first day of action with the fastest time in FP1 and FP2.
Though few conclusions could be drawn from FP1, which was hampered by rain falling just minutes into the session, Lowes nonetheless proved himself again during the completely dry FP2 to set a best of 2m 08.056secs.
It was just enough to edge out fellow Honda rider Luca Scassa by 0.004secs, the Italian – who scored his best finish of fourth last weekend at Assen – showing well aboard the Padgetts machine.
Behind him, championship leader Josh Brookes and title rival Tommy Hill emerged third and fourth quickest, but Shane Byrne, who is only two points behind Brookes after Assen, endured a day to forget after failing to set a time in either session.
Opting to miss out FP1 once the rain began falling, Byrne's hopes of making up time in FP2 were scuppered when he crashed on his first flying lap. Despite being unable to get back out on track, Byrne was otherwise unhurt.
Of the remaining title fighters, Michael Laverty was sixth quickest, while Tommy Bridewell was down 16th after day one.
Elsewhere, Barry Burrell was the top BMW rider in seventh, ahead of Jakub Smrz on the Splitlath Redmond Aprilia and Robbin Harms on the Doodson Honda, while Peter Hickman rounded out the top ten.