Shane Byrne blasted a warning to the early season pacemakers in the chase for the Bennetts British Superbike title that he is back in business.

The former champion, back on the domestic scene after two tough seasons in World MotoGP, scorched ahead of the rest during official testing at Oulton Park as he prepared for the Holiday Monday 1 May third round to be held at the Cheshire circuit.

The Rizla Suzuki was the dominant force using both race and qualifying tyres, ending the session in convincing style with a 1m 36.53secs lap of the 2.692 mile circuit, some three quarters of a second ahead of Jonathan Rea.

Byrne is currently sixth in the title stakes and is playing catch-up, but recent development works on the Suzuki have increased both power and speed, and that was also illustrated last time out at Thruxton, earlier in the week.

Rea, riding the Red Bull Honda out in a best lap of 1m 37.255secs, ahead of James Haydon aboard the second Rizla Suzuki - the Berkhamsted rider put in a series of highly consistent laps as he shrugged aside memories of crashes during the Thruxton round, clocking a best time of 1m 37.977secs

Fourth fastest overall was Michael Rutter, aboard the Stobart Motorsport Honda, in a time of 1m 38.183secs, a third of a second ahead of Karl Harris, who crashed during the second session, aggravating the injuries he sustained in his Thruxton race 1 crash last weekend.

The HM Plant Honda rider, who lapped in 1m 38.437secs, faces a race against time to be fully fit for the races in which he could face challenges from Virgin Mobile Yamaha's Tommy Hill, seventh on the leaderboard with a time of 1m 38.697secs.

Australians Glen Richards, Hydrex Honda, and Dean Thomas, Hawk Kawasaki, were marginally slower, but ahead of Ryuichi Kiyonari aboard the second HM Plant Honda whose best lap came in a time of 1m 39.443secs, just half a second ahead of Vivaldi Suzuki rider Ben Wilson.

ends