Czech Jakub Smrz claimed his first pole position in the MCE Insurance British Superbike Championship at Thruxton this afternoon, scoring the top spot in qualifying for the first time for the Ducati Panigale.

Smrz saved his best until last to storm to the top of the times for the Millsport Ducati team in only their debut campaign, scoring Ducati's first pole position since 2010. Smrz's lap was just 0.116s ahead of Milwaukee Yamaha's Josh Brookes who had topped the opening qualifying session.

Smrz said: "It feels really good to be on pole position. This season is new for the Panigale and this is only my second season in the championship so we have been working hard and this a good achievement for us. I have been getting used to the bike and we have been improving all the time so today we have proved we are moving forward. I really like this track, we just need to keep on trying and see what we can do in the races tomorrow. Hopefully we can have a good start and fight for a podium."

The front row for the opening race tomorrow will be completed by Dan Linfoot who had his best qualifying performance of the season for the Quattro Plant Bournemouth Kawasaki team at their home round in third.

Linfoot's lap pushed championship leader Shane 'Shakey' Byrne back onto the second row onboard the Rapid Solicitors Kawasaki ahead of Michael Rutter on the Bathams BMW and local ace Tommy Bridewell.

John Hopkins had topped the second qualifying session for Tyco Suzuki, but he will start seventh on the grid ahead of Peter Hickman on the RAF Reserves Honda and the lone Lloyds British GBmoto Racing Kawasaki of Chris Walker. Jon Kirkham scored his best qualifying result of the season in tenth for the Halsall Biker Gear Kawasaki squad.

MCE Insurance British Superbike Championship, Thruxton, Datatag Extreme Qualifying:
Jakub Smrz (Millsport Ducati) 1m:15.281s
Josh Brookes (Milwaukee Yamaha) +0.116s
Dan Linfoot (Quattro Plant Bournemouth Kawasaki) +0.342s
Shane Byrne (Rapid Solicitors Kawasaki) +0.345s
Michael Rutter (Bathams BMW) +0.375s
Tommy Bridewell (Milwaukee Yamaha) +0.662s
John Hopkins (Tyco Suzuki) +0.688s
Peter Hickman (RAF Reserves Honda) +0.743s
Chris Walker (Lloyds British GBmoto Racing Kawasaki) +0.790s
Jon Kirkham (Halsall Biker Gear Kawasaki) +1.489s



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