The MCE Insurance British Superbike Championship Showdown has kicked off in Assen with tensions mounting ahead of Sunday's opening two races. The 'War for Four' continued to rage on track as Ryuichi Kiyonari edged out Shane 'Shakey' Byrne after the opening day by just 0.121s.

Kiyonari was straight back on the pace and was the fastest of the Title Fighters in second place on the timesheets. The Buildbase BMW rider was narrowly edged out by John Hopkins in the second session but admitted he was feeling confident to be matching the pace of his rivals despite missing the recent test.

Kiyonari said:

"Today I wasn't as fast as I thought we could be, but I am happy because we have had a good start and we were able to finish faster than the riders who had been to the test here after Cadwell Park. I think Hopper perhaps had a new tyre at the end of the session so I am not worried about him being fastest this afternoon but I still saw the timesheets and thought 'oh!' I wanted to be fastest in both sessions but I am feeling happy and we want to go faster tomorrow."

Shane 'Shakey' Byrne though was closing in on his arch rival, holding third place on the timesheets this afternoon. Byrne and the Rapid Solicitors Kawasaki team have been working through setting changes following the recent test and are confident they can attack for wins on Sunday.

Byrne said:

"It has been pretty good for us today, because we had the test we had a couple of ideas for direction here and we have gone in two different directions in the two sessions. We have a good idea of what we need to do, because we have a structured plan for the sessions based on what we learnt at the test. If we follow that and keep moving forward then we will be in a god position to attack for those wins in the two races in Sunday."



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