Leon Haslam starts the title deciding final round of the Bennetts British Superbike Championship, at Brands Hatch, from pole position, with his two rivals for the sport's premier crown, Gregorio Lavilla and Ryuichi Kiyonari starting from the second row of the grid.

Their hopes of matching, or bettering, the time of Haslam were ended by a light rain shower in the closing minutes of the session in which the 23 year old Derbyshire rider enjoyed topping the qualifying leaderboard for the fifth time this season to clinch the Audi Performance Award which rewards consistent speed in the grid deciding session over all 13 rounds.

Haslam will receive the keys to the limited edition Audi S4 Cabriolet, valued at £50,000, just before the first of the two races that will decide the outcome of the crown he is so determined to win, even though he starts these races nine points down on his Airwaves Ducati team-mate, defending champion Lavilla, who has a single point lead over HM Plant Honda rider Kiyonari.

“Taking pole is one weight off my shoulders,” smiled Haslam. “The car is nice, a real bonus, but now I have to concentrate on the races. I know what I have to do and this is to stay ahead of Greg and Kiyo. I want this title, it is everything I have worked for.

“I am in the perfect position now whether the races are wet or dry and I am pretty confident going into them, having good memories of my winning ride here in last year's final race of the year.

“I was getting a bit nervous in qualifying, running seventh or eighth when there were a few spots of rain and I managed to get my fast lap in just in time - I'm well happy with that.”

Haslam had lapped the 2.3009 mile Kent circuit in 1m 26.558secs, 95.69mph, just 0.062secs up on former champion Shane Byrne, riding Rizla Suzuki. Michael Rutter put his Stobart Honda onto the front row, a split second ahead of Red Bull Honda's Jonathan Rea.

Kiyonari was fifth best, to head up the second row. He had been planning a run on his qualifier tyre just as the rains came. Even so, his best lap of 1m 26.798secs was only a quarter of a second down on Haslam. “At least it is better than last year when I was on the third row - this is a very difficult circuit, but I learn it well and hopefully know it enough to win these races.”

Starting alongside him, and just 0.113secs down is Lavilla. He too missed the opportunity of improving his time as the umbrellas came out with twelve minutes of the session remaining. He had been working methodically: “I was concentrating on my tyres and set-up for the races.”

James Haydon, Rizla Suzuki, and Karl Harris, HM Plant Honda, complete the second row, with Ben Wilson, the fastest of the Vivaldi Suzuki riders running ninth in a time of 1m 27.694secs, ahead of Glen Richards, Hydrex Honda, Tommy Hill on the Virgin Mobile Yamaha and CSI Kawasaki rider Jon Kirkham.

Aussie David Johnson, riding the STP Kawasaki, was the fastest of the British Superbike Cup riders, lapping in 1m 28.420secs, ahead of Marty Nutt, newly crowned champion Chris Martin and Howie Mainwaring.

ends