Shane Byrne produced a storming late lap to capture pole position for Round 6 of the British Superbike Championship at Brands Hatch.

The Rapid Solicitors Kawasaki rider, who leads the overall standings by 32 points after five rounds, clocked a time of one minute 25.672 seconds around his home circuit in the final two minutes of Datatag Extreme qualifying.

Byrne, who was securing his third pole of the season, had been pushed hard during the session by his title rivals Alex Lowes and Josh Brookes, but Lowes had to settle for second place on the grid with a time 0.123 seconds slower than Byrne.

Australian Brookes finished 0.169secs down in third place on his Tyco Suzuki, while Lowes’ Samsung Honda team-mate Ryuichi Kiyonari edged out James Ellison to complete the front row in fourth.

Byrne, from the Isle of Sheppey, said after qualifying: “I love winning at Brands Hatch as much as anywhere else and to get pole position here is good as I am sure we will have a wonderful crowd and some great racing between us.

“I need to score two good results and if that is two wins to take me to 50 then that will be fantastic.

“We have worked hard so far and we are all running a very similar pace at the front so fingers crossed we have some good battles on Sunday.”