Michael Rutter gave his rivals for the Bennetts British Superbike Championship plenty of food for thought as he smashed three quarters of a second off the Mondello Park lap record during practice for the double race fifth round.

The HM Plant Honda rider lapped the 2.177 mile Irish circuit in a scorching 1m 39.990s, almost a full second faster than anyone else.

“It is important for me to focus on achieving the best results that I can to maintain my advantage in the championship,” smiled Rutter who has bitter-sweet memories of racing here last year.

Then he crashed while leading the opener, but hit back superbly to take the victory next time out. “I can't afford any slip-up this time - I need strong results here and am feeling confident that I can build on the three vital wins I have enjoyed recently.”

Rutter has a 56 points advantage over Gregorio Lavilla, the Airwaves Ducati rider, who took time to learn the circuit, and was running back in twelfth place on the leaderboard, but the Honda rider expects a sterner challenge to come in from his team-mate Ryuichi Kiyonari.

“I know that he will be very strong in the races - he is determined to come back strongly - it was certainly easier when he was not racing,” admitted Rutter.

The 22 year old Japanese rider is back after injury, and running strongly as like Lavilla he rides here for the first time. “I missed racing here last year because I was injured so practice has been very important for me.”

Kiyonari had to settle for seventh, but in close contention with the pack jus ahead of him, led by the Aussie Glen Richards riding the Hawk Kawasaki. His best lap came in a time of 1m 41.282s, marginally faster than Leon Haslam, the race winner last time out at Oulton Park.

Surprisingly the young Ulsterman Jonathan Rea was fourth fastest on the Red Bull Honda, maintaining the form he had demonstrated during the morning when he was the fastest rider with a lap of 1m 41.944s, eclipsing both Kiyonari and Rutter by half a second.

Sean Emmett, riding the Virgin Mobile Samsung Yamaha was fifth best, just ahead of Michael Laverty riding the Stobart Honda, whose team-mate Jeremy McWilliams, on his return from injury, was back in fifteenth place.

Scott Smart, who enjoyed his first ever Superbike victory here last year took a tumble during the morning, but hit back, running his Rizla Suzuki tenth fastest, while his team-mate James Haydon, also crashing without injury was 16 ^th fastest.

ends