Kent’s Shane Byrne blasted to pole position with an impressive 48.333 lap and proved unbeatable out on the Knockhill circuit.

Tyco Suzuki’s Josh Brookes was one hundredths of a second slower than the reigning champ and even though the Aussie rider completed more laps of the Scottish circuit in Q3 than another rider he still could not scrap past Byrne to clinch pole position, and will see himself start from second after his impressive 48.343 time.

But both riders were quicker than Byrne’s own circuit lap record of 48.474 which he set back in 2006.

Samsung Honda’s Alex Lowes rounds off the front row, with the Lincolnshire rider starting the race tomorrow from third on the grid. Buildbase BMW’s Jon Kirkham was only 0.3 seconds off Lowes’ lap time, and narrowly missed out on a front row start, and has to contend with starting from the second row of the grid.

Kirkham will be joined by Samsung Honda’s Ryuichi Kiyonari, who has improved on his previous poor form this weekend and was in contention for a provisional front row start. But a 48.986 lap safely placed the Japanese rider on the second row, and is sandwiched between Kirkham and Tyco Suzuki’s PJ Jacobsen.

The third row is made up of Buildbase BMW’s James Westmoreland and Rapid Solicitors Kawasaki’s Keith Farmer. GBmoto’s Peter Hickman completes the third row, but his team were in a race against time to make sure his bike was fixed to go out for Q3 after crashing his Honda in the previous session.