Shane 'Shakey' Byrne claimed his first pole position of the 2012 MCE Insurance British Superbike Championship season as he set a scorching final lap of the Brands Hatch Grand Prix circuit to fire the Rapid Solicitors Kawasaki to the top of the times as the top ten were covered by less than a second.

The opening session was red flagged when David Anthony crashed heavily in the opening minutes, he was unhurt and after an inspection of the track Q1 resumed as Tommy Hill moved fastest after the opening flying laps. Byrne then had his spell as the fastest rider on track ahead of a closing Ian Lowry with the defending champion pushed back to third. Chris Walker then improved his pace on the Pr1mo Bournemouth Kawasaki to set the fastest time as he edged marginally ahead only for Graeme Gowland to put in his best lap in the final five minutes to hold the top spot at the end of Q1. Walker maintained second ahead of Laverty as Danny Buchan just missed out on his debut qualifying session in the championship.

In the second qualifying session the fight to make it through to Q3 went down to the wire as Ian Lowry then Stuart Easton got pushed outside the top ten whilst James Westmoreland and Michael Rutter pushed into ninth and tenth respectively. There was more drama for the Tyco Suzuki team as Alastair Seeley's nightmare continued with a technical problem putting him out on his first lap, leaving him 20th on the grid for tomorrow's opening race. Gowland again led the session from Walker and Laverty on the Samsung Honda.

Hill had kicked off Q3 setting the benchmark as Laverty closed in but it wasn't until the final minute of the session that double champion Byrne was able to wrestle the pole from his title rivals to claim his first pole start of the season in a tense conclusion to the session for the leading contenders.

Byrne said:

"I am always going to be labelled as the Brands Hatch specialist now as it is here I have took the first pole of the season. My crew told me before the session we would need a 1m:25 second lap time and I wasn't sure it would be possible but we are all riding really hard and now we are in a good position for the first race but we need to keep pushing tomorrow."

Noriyuki Haga heads the second row from Walker, James Westmoreland and Gowland as Alex Lowes and Michael Rutter completed the top ten.

MCE Insurance British Superbike Championship, Brands Hatch GP, qualifying:

Shane Byrne (Rapid Solicitors Kawasaki) 1m:25.908s
Tommy Hill (Swan Yamaha) +0.062s
Michael Laverty (Samsung Honda) +0.297s
Josh Brookes (Tyco Suzuki) +0.431s
Noriyuki Haga (Swan Yamaha) +0.444s
Chris Walker (Pr1mo Bournemouth Kawasaki) +0.448s
James Westmoreland (WFR Honda) +0.505s
Graeme Gowland (WFR Honda) +0.518s
Alex Lowes (WFR Honda) +0.907s
Michael Rutter (MSS Bathams Kawasaki) +0.916s

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