Ryuichi Kiyonari proved the man for all conditions at Mondello Park as he ran fastest in both the morning rain and then eased comfortably ahead of the pack as the Irish circuit began to dry in the afternoon.

Riding the HM Plant Honda, the defending champion had put in a lap of 1m 51.052secs, as the heavy rain brought back memories of last year's aborted meeting, but Kiyonari was unconcerned by the conditions, running half a second up on Karl Harris, aboard the Hydrex Honda.

Then, as the rain cleared, Kiyonari maintained his form, though now the challenges were coming in from his team-mate Jonathan Rea, the pole starter of two years ago here, along with the Airwaves Ducati duo of Gregorio Lavilla and Leon Haslam.

However it was former champion Shane Byrne, riding the Stobart Vent-Axia Motorsport Honda, who posed the major threat to Kiyonari, who, with his fifth victory of the campaign, had moved eleven points clear in the title stakes in the previous round.

Byrne lapped the 2.1766 mile County Kildare circuit in a time of 1m 49.011secs, but Kiyonari was untroubled, running 0.675secs up on him, while Rea was a solid third.

Lavilla however was running into problems, and his hopes of improving the lap of 1m 50.011secs that left him fifth best on the leaderboard, a tenth down on Haslam, were dashed when he slid out of the afternoon session in the closing stages.

Harris was running sixth best, a quarter of a second up on Cal Crutchlow, the faster of the two Rizla Suzuki riders, with his teamster Chris Walker, back in eleventh place, after tipping off in the final minutes of practice.

In between them were Leon Camier and Tommy Hill, both of whom had crashed in the morning rain, and Tom Sykes, maintaining his steady progress since graduating from British Supersport.

Ollie Bridewell completed the leading dozen, with a best lap of 1m 53.159secs on his NB Suzuki, marginally ahead of the experienced Aussie Dean Thomas on the similar machine, running in Samsung colours.

Brian McCormack, the Tramore rider, making his debut into the British Superbike Cup, upstaged the regulars as he made local knowledge count, running best in class, and fourteenth overall, with a lap of 1m 53.905secs on his TAG Honda.

Tristan Palmer ran half a second down on him as he continues with the THR Honda team with Dublin rider Paul Barron third on his PBM Racing Ireland Yamaha. Marty Nutt, Malcolm Ashley, Neil Faulkner, Tom Tunstall and the series leading James Buckingham completed the Cup qualifiers.

Ends