Shane Byrne claims his first pole position of the season

Shane Bryne took the top spot in today’s qualifying session at Brands Hatch for round 7 of the British Superbike Championship. The Rapid Solicitors Kawasaki rider was one of only two riders to dip below the 1m26s bracket and a time of 1m25.908s gave him a slender advantage of 0.062s over current Championship leader Tommy Hill.

 
The Swan Yamaha man will be joined on the front row by Michael Laverty (Samsung Honda) and Josh Brookes (Tyco Suzuki) with just four tenths of a second separating the quartet, who are also the four leading riders in the Championship at present.
 
As per the trend during the earlier free practice sessions, it was tight on the leaderboard and Noriyuki Haga (Swan Yamaha) and Chris Walker (Pr1mo Bournemouth Kawasaki) were only a few hundredths further back in fifth and sixth, thus indiciating we’re set for two close fought races on Sunday.
 
The top ten was completed by the WFR Honda trio of James Westmoreland, Graeme Gowland and Alex Lowes and the MSS Bathams Kawasaki of Michael Rutter.
 
The initial session was stopped when Australian rider David Anthony crashed at Hawthorn, fortunately without injury, whilst Alastair Seeley ground to a halt at the same spot in Q2 and will line up in 20th on the grid.
 
1.Shane Byrne (Rapid Solicitors Kawasaki) 1m:25.908s
2.Tommy Hill (Swan Yamaha) +0.062s
3.Michael Laverty (Samsung Honda) +0.297s
4.Josh Brookes (Tyco Suzuki)  +0.431s
5.Noriyuki Haga (Swan Yamaha) +0.444s
6.Chris Walker (Pr1mo Bournemouth Kawasaki) +0.448s
7.James Westmoreland (WFR Honda) +0.505s
8.Graeme Gowland (WFR Honda) +0.518s
9.Alex Lowes (WFR Honda) +0.907s
10.Michael Rutter (MSS Bathams Kawasaki) +0.916s