Reigning MCE British Superbike Champion Tommy Hill has admitted to being shocked at the time he put in during today's qualifying session at Assen which netted him fourth place in mixed conditions.

The Swan Yamaha man, who has been closely linked to a MotoGP CRT ride in 2013, was prevented from pushing pole sitter Alex Lowes harder by a light rain shower so he had to settle for the outside of row one.

"Every time we have gone out here this weekend we have been making chassis and gearing changes and it is a different feeling here with the bike compared to some of the previous circuits we have raced on. To be honest with the changing conditions I was pretty shocked to have done the time that I did," said Hill.

"We have been working with the different tyre options and we had a good pace but the changeable conditions just meant we couldn’t push that little bit extra today. We had some in reserve and we want to have a strong race tomorrow.”