The McAMS Yamaha team were left frustrated after a disappointing Bike Social Sprint Race in Round 3 of the Bennetts British Superbike Championship at Donington Park.

After placing no lower than third throughout free practice, the team had high hopes for Australia’s Jason O’Halloran who put in an impressive race run on the softer ‘X’ tyre in FP3.

As the exciting one lap ‘Superpole’ qualifying format returned, O’Halloran continued to perform, setting the third quickest lap to earn his first front row start of the year.

The Donington Park Grand Prix track was fully resurfaced over the winter and the new asphalt is super grippy and abrasive, so there was concern about tyre life ahead of the opening race of the weekend. However, O’Halloran’s pace on the soft option SCX tyre over distance in FP3 led to the team choosing this for the race while most of the grid opted for the harder SC0.

Despite a strong launch, the Aussie suffered from a mysterious lack of grip from the off, leaving the team scratching their heads as they’d changed nothing on the bike and the track temperature was the same as during his run earlier in the day. He will start tomorrow’s second race from fifth.

Dropping through the field throughout the race, O’Halloran’s afternoon was then made worse after an aggressive move from another rider sent him off the track on the final lap, meaning he’d cross the line 14th.

After qualifying 24th, Tim Neave was able to pick off eight places to finish 16th as he continues to learn and take steps in his rookie year.