Shane 'Shakey' Byrne claimed a dramatic MCE Insurance British Superbike Championship pole position at Knockhill despite ended his Datatag Qualifying in the gravel after crashing out at turn seven in the final three minutes of the Q3 session.

The top three contenders were lapping under the existing circuit record and Byrne was determined to put a bigger gap between himself and the chasing pack and as he exited turn seven he slid out of contention unhurt, but ended his session in the gravel.

Byrne said:

"I'm a little bit surprised with the outcome of qualifying. We all know what we think is an achievable lap time, and I planned for the time I thought I could do in that last session. I pushed hard, but it seemed like I was sliding on every single corner exit on the last run. I did a time that was good enough for pole, and a couple more close to it - but I think the rear tyre maybe wasn't up to the same quality as normal.

"I thought 'oh ok, I'll run in a little hotter and be a bit more careful on the exit with the throttle,' but trying that on my second lap I went into Clarkes like normal, released the brakes a little earlier to try and carry a bit more speed, and tucked the front tyre.

"It's frustrating for that to happen, but at the end of the day I'm happy with the result. It's  PBM one-two, the times have been close; but I just thought we had maybe another two tenths or so there.

"I think for tomorrow we've worked really hard on race pace. Yesterday afternoon, my best lap time - that would have got us fairly high up today's grid - came from the thirty third lap on the tyre. From that view, we should be cool - and with the times as close as they are, it should make for some pretty exciting racing!

"In qualifying, it's always really difficult - and my aim every time is to just try and make it onto the front row. I'm not overly fussed about pole position, and even if that sounds crazy, I know that the main goal of the weekend is to work hard to be ready for the races.

"The qualifying is incredibly close, but I think tomorrow four or five of us will be able to go off at the front  and hopefully one of those will be able to go off a little bit further! There'll be come cool battles, because it's a track that lends itself to that."  

Stuart Easton starts second on the grid for his home round after overcoming Milwaukee Yamaha's Josh Brookes as the Australian holds third, despite leading earlier in the Q3 session.

As Easton improved Honda Racing's Jason O'Halloran dropped back to the second row, after initially looking like he would hold on to a top three position. The Australian narrowly held off Ryuichi Kiyonari as the triple champion moved up the order throughout qualifying to push himself into fifth position with James Ellison completing the second row.

Tyco BMW's Michael Laverty got bumped down to seventh as Danny Buchan returned to the top ten ahead of Dan Linfoot and Luke Mossey as the frantic Q3 session saw the top ten riders covered by just 0.684s.

MCE Insurance British Superbike Championship, Knockhill, Datatag Qualifying result:

Shane Byrne (PBM Kawasaki) 48.153s
Stuart Easton (PBM Kawasaki) +0.052s
Josh Brookes (Milwaukee Yamaha) +0.066s
Jason O'Halloran (Honda Racing) +0.191s
Ryuichi Kiyonari (Buildbase BMW) +0.249s
James Ellison (JG Speedfit Kawasaki) +0.348s
Michael Laverty (Tyco BMW) +0.368s
Danny Buchan (Be Wiser Kawasaki) +0.476s
Dan Linfoot (Honda Racing) +0.504s
Luke Mossey (Quattro Plant Kawasaki) +0.684s

Photograph by Double Red