Jonathan Rea bounced back from a tumble in the rain-soaked opening free practice session ahead of the eighth round of the Bennetts British Superbike Championship at Oulton Park to comfortably head the leaderboard.

The HM Plant Honda rider goes into these races bidding to peg back the eleven points deficit he has on his team-mate, the reigning champion Ryuichi Kiyonari, in the title stakes, and he outpaced the Japanese rider by some two seconds.

Rea, who had cut his right hand when he slid out of the morning session at Druids, showed no ill-effects with a dominant performance next time out, despite the conditions as he recorded a lap of 1m 45.431secs, an average speed of 91.92mph.

“I'm quite happy overall - the tumble was one of those things and the conditions were difficult, but my bike and the tyres are good,” said Rea who is unbeaten in the three previous races, a record he intends to continue here.

Karl Harris, the pole starter of the corresponding round last term, ran closest to Rea, powering his Hydrex Honda within half a second of him while Leon Haslam was a further second down in third place aboard the Airwaves Ducati.

Haslam, who regarded the early season round of the championship at the Cheshire circuit as a turning point in his campaign, when he took a pair of second placings, is confident of better things this time around, especially as he ran ahead of Kiyonari.

“For me now the need is to win races and battle to get top side the two Honda riders, starting here on a circuit that we enjoy,” reflected Haslam. “We are going in the right direction and are in a position now where anything can happen.”

He is currently fourth in the standings behind his Airwaves team-mate Gregorio Lavilla. The Spaniard, who like Kiyonari was a race winner here back in May, ran sixth best in the wet, with a best lap of 1m 48.028secs, a third of a second down on Tom Sykes riding the Stobart Vent Axia Motorsport Honda.

Michael Rutter, returning from injury, set the seventh best time, 1m 48.283secs, aboard the Isilon MSS Discovery Kawasaki, a tenth up on former champion Shane Byrne, riding the second Stobart Honda, with the Rizla Suzuki duo of Chris Walker and Cal Crutchlow a further second down.

Steve Plater crashed heavily in the closing minutes of the session, having set twelfth best time, but suffering rib injuries will take no further part in the meeting, but Leon Camier who had tipped off earlier escaped injury, though by the time his Bike Animal Honda had been repaired there was no chance of him improving his time of 1m 52.790secs, which still put him ahead of Scott Smart, riding the Hawk Kawasaki and Dean Thomas, returning to ride the Samsung Suzuki, having missed the Knockhill round through injury.

Malcolm Ashley, riding the MAR Kawasaki, topped the British Superbike Cup qualifiers with a best lap of 1m 55.172secs, over half a second up on Tom Tunstall, aboard the Hardinge-Ice Valley Honda, with Tristan Palmer third best on the THR Honda.

Ends