Swan Yamaha’s Tommy Hill claimed a front row start ahead of tomorrow’s seventh round of the MCE British Superbike Championship at Brands Hatch in Kent as Noriyuki Haga just missed out on the front row in fifth.

Hill was narrowly edged out on claiming his fifth pole position of the season at his home circuit after setting the fastest time in the two free practice sessions earlier in the day. Haga made his return to the Grand Prix circuit for the first time since 2008 and was just pushed back onto the second row of the grid in the closing minute of the qualifying session.

Hill said:

“It is always good to be on the front row and that is what you need, especially as it is the same four of us on the front row. We have started the weekend well but it is when the red mist comes down in the other garages you need to be ready and we need to keep making sure we move forwards too. I was a bit frustrated and I was overriding the bike; we have had some fuelling issues and again it felt different today but we made some mapping changes to try and pip Shakey for the pole position at the end of the session but fair play he did a good job. We are all pushing hard and the front row is still a good result. The Swan Yamaha is working well and now we need to do the same at Brands Hatch as we did at Oulton Park in the races tomorrow.”

Haga said:

“It is good to be back at Brands Hatch and I am working hard to make improvements. With every exit from the pitlane we were trying to improve today and we still have something that we need to work on to get the balance right for me here on this circuit as it is quite different from the others. We still haven’t found this yet. We only need something small to make the difference and I think we will make a plan tonight of how we can improve for the races tomorrow but a second row start is not so bad.”

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