Kyle Ryde claimed pole position for this afternoon’s British Superbike Championship race at Donington Park with the LAMI OMG Racing Yamaha rider coming out on top in the re-introduced Superpole-format session.

He got the better of Leon Haslam (ROKiT BMW) by the slender margin of 0.083s with Jason O’Halloran (McAMS Yamaha) completing the front row in third.

Ryde, Haslam and O’Halloran had set the pace in the fourth and final free practice session, which lasted for just ten minutes, all three lapping at 1’27.6 and with just 0.027s separating them and with a short qualifying session following, it was Christian Iddon (Oxford Products Ducati), Jack Kennedy (Mar-Train Racing Yamaha) and Max Cook (Cheshire Mouldings Kawasaki) who sealed the final three Superpole spots.

Cook was the first to go out for Superpole, lapping at 1’28.639 but that was immediately bettered by Kennedy’s 1’28.027, an impressive lap by the Dubliner after he missed most of the earlier qualifying session when his R1 Yamaha refused to fire up.

Iddon failed to beat Kennedy’s time after lapping a tenth slower and next to go, Peter Hickman (FHO Racing BMW) was also unable to knock him off the top spot and, indeed was two tenths of a second slower than Iddon.

Danny Buchan (Synetiq BMW) also struggled, slotting in behind Hickman, but the next man on track, Andrew Irwin, pieced together a strong lap with a time of 1’27.933 sending him quickest and finally deposing Kennedy from the number one position.

Neither Danny Kent (Lovell Kent Racing Honda), Lee Jackson (Cheshire Mouldings Kawasaki) or Ryan Vickers (LAMI OMG Racing Yamaha) could do anything about Irwin’s time and with six riders left to go, the order was Andrew Irwin, Kennedy, Jackson, Iddon, Vickers and Hickman.

Next to go out on track was Josh Brookes on the second FHO machine but he could only manage a 1’28.177 to go, at the time, fifth quickest and he was pushed back further by Tommy Bridewell (BeerMonster Ducati) whose impressive lap of 1’27.673 sent him quickest and a quarter of a second ahead of Irwin.

Irwin’s brother Glenn on the second BeerMonster Ducati couldn’t better either of the leading two times and that just left O’Halloran, Haslam and Ryde to go. And O’Halloran re-emphasised his pace as he went quickest, exactly a tenth of a second quicker than Bridewell.

Haslam then set the quickest time in the first two sectors only to run wide at the Melbourne Hairpin, which looked like it had cost him pole position. However, he still managed a 1’27.403, which was more than a tenth of a second ahead of O’Halloran.

His time in first didn’t last long though as the best lap was saved until last with Ryde’s lap of 1’27.320 edging out Haslam with O’Halloran joining them on the front row, Bridewell, Andrew Irwin and Glenn Irwin lining up a row behind.

Kennedy, Jackson, Iddon and Brookes completed the top ten.

CLICK HERE to view the latest 2023 BSB standings after 2 Rounds of 11