Ryuichi Kiyonari, the reigning Bennetts British Superbike Champion, enjoys Silverstone and that was underlined by him taking his first pole start of the campaign here at the Northamptonshire circuit, though by only a split second from the determined Leon Haslam.

The Japanese rider took a winning double to ease towards the crown in the penultimate round last term and he needs an action replay of those results as he plays catch-up in the title stakes, being 51 points down on the champion of two years ago, the currently unbeaten series leader Gregorio Lavilla.

The Spaniard finds himself starting from the second row of the grid and also being out-gunned by his Airwaves Ducati team-mate Haslam who was riding through the pain barrier, after a 174mph crash during Friday practice had left him with a badly bruised and swollen left thigh.

Haslam had put in a race distance run in the grid deciding session before using his qualifying tyre to good effect in the final moments of a dramatic session, putting in a time of 1m 25.406secs, just 0.023secs down on Kiyonari's scorching 93.29mph lap.

Shane `Shakey' Byrne, a former winner of the title, put his Stobart Vent-Axia Motorsport Honda onto the front row, third fastest, although he was not too pleased: “I'm a bit disappointed as I was baulked by a couple of slower riders on a fast lap, but at least we are up at the front and feeling good for the races.”

Jonathan Rea, the 20 year old Ballyclare rider, completed a good day for the HM Plant team, as he ran fourth, with a time of 1m 25.688secs with less than a third of second between him and Kiyonari.

Chris Walker ran strongly for Rizla Suzuki, pushing Lavilla, whose best lap came in 1m 26.032secs, back into sixth place and a starting slot alongside his nearest championship rival, Leon Camier, riding the Bike Animal Honda. Cal Crutchlow completed the second row.

Tom Sykes continues to grow in stature, running marginally faster than the experienced Michael Rutter aboard the Isilon MSS Discovery Kawasaki, with the top ten riders all qualifying within a second of each other. Karl Harris, riding Hydrex Honda was just ahead of Virgin Media Optoma Loans Yamaha rider Tommy Hill and the Team NB Suzuki Bridewell brothers Tommy and Ollie.

Marty Nutt heads the qualifiers for the British Superbike Cup, but faces a medical check on raceday morning after sustaining back injuries in a tumble late on in qualifying. Tristan Palmer, Malcolm Ashley, Paul Barron, Tom Tunstall and Neil Faulkner completed the Privateer qualifiers.

Ends