Shane Byrne will head into the final round of British Superbikes as the favourite to wrap up a third title.

Byrne nosed ahead in the MCE British Superbike Championship with a solid display at Silverstone on Sunday.

Having come into the weekend just two points adrift of Josh Brookes, Byrne was arguably the closest rival double winner Alex Lowes had during the races, but scuppered his hopes of a victory challenge in race one when a mistake dropped him down the order before Lowes beat him with a last corner pass in race two.

Nonetheless, Byrne was still able to complete a brace of second place finishes – ahead of Brookes – to increase his margin over the Australian to nine points with one round and three races remaining.

Crucially, that event will take place on the Brands Hatch GP circuit, where Byrne was a comfortable double winner earlier this season. As such, he will go into the season finale as the favourite for his third BSB title – and Kawasaki’s first since 1992.

“After the problems that we had this weekend what with Shakey crashing on Friday and then missing this morning’s warm up due to a misfire, to come away leading the championship is brilliant,” said team owner Paul Bird.

“That’s a win and three second places in the Showdown for Shakey and going into the next round at his home track at Brands Hatch he is feeling very confident. Fair play to Alex Lowes, he rode absolutely fantastically and it’s certainly going to be a three way battle for the title.”

Byrne said: “I joked earlier on in the day after race one that I should measure Alex’s fairing to know how much room not to leave as I am sure I didn’t leave a big enough gap to get through!”

“He has been the man to beat and I was much happier not to make a mistake and be able to run at the front. He had a big wobble with a few laps to go as we went out on the back straight and my Rapid Solicitors Kawasaki is really strong there. I tried to use that and get away and I could hear a bike screaming in my ears on the last lap and I knew it would be Alex and we came into the final section.”

“I ran it a little wide into the left to block the entry on the right and I thought I just needed to nail the exit and we would have had it, but the next thing I knew there was a number 22 up the inside of me and I thought ‘how did you get there!’ Fair play to him though he did a good job and I need to thank my team as we have had our fair share of ups and downs at the weekend. We are racing on the edge and there are three more races to go at Brands Hatch so fingers crossed for that one.”

Meanwhile, it was a nightmare weekend for Tommy Hill who picked up two seventh placed finishes.