Leon Haslam and Luke Mossey made it a JG Speedfit Kawasaki one-two as they dominated qualifying ahead of this afternoon’s Bennetts British Superbike Championship race at Donington Park.
In a session which brought several big crashes, Haslam emerged the man to beat as he shot to the top of the timesheets early doors, and was unable to be beaten.
After holding the top spot for most of the session, he sealed the deal with a 1’29.128 lap in the closing minutes.
Following the decision to move forward the first race to today, qualifying became a half-hour timed battle, which ran straight after final free practice.
It had been Byrne who topped that session with a 1’30.239 ahead of Haslam, Ellison and Irwin.
Jake Dixon and Taz Mackenzie, who had both crashed in FP3, faced an agonising wait to see if their machines could be recovered in time, while David Johnson was taken to the medical centre after a fall.
As qualifying got underway, the track temperature started to rise and the times quickly started to tumble.
Buildbase Suzuki’s Brad Ray was the first rider to move into the 1’29s, and it didn’t take long for the rest to follow suit, as Haslam clocked a 1’29.742.
From there, the local man never dropped from the top spot, and the big battle became the fight for second place on the grid.
James Ellison and Danny Buchan were both in the mix, but Mossey was still to make his move, and he did so in the closing moments, crossing the line to steal second with just 30 seconds remaining.
Byrne, who later admitted his concern about track temperatures, had also left it late, and made a charge on his last lap to qualify his Be Wiser Ducati third with a 1’29.590.
And it was session which claimed a number of fallers. Tommy Bridewell crashed his Movuno.com Halsall Suzuki at Starkey’s on his out lap and moments later Gino Rea tipped off his OMG Racing Suzuki at the Fogarty Esses.
Christian Iddon suffered a big off at Craner as the session reached the halfway point, ending his hopes of a charge. A few minutes later, Kuba Smrz became the next man to join the Craner club, as he tipped off his Lloyd & Jones Bower Motorrad BMW.
Taylor Mackenzie’s Moto Rapido Ducati came off in the same place with four minutes to go, and in the final minutes, Sylvain Barrier tipped off his Smiths Racing BMW in the same place.