Rizla Suzuki have continued to make progress with their wet-weather set up at Oulton Park this afternoon and lead rider Tom Sykes has put himself on the front row for tomorrow's British Superbike double header.

Sykes battled with Cal Crutchlow for most of the 50-minute session and was looking for pole until the HM Plant HOnda man slipped into the lead and then Sykes was beaten to second by a gnat's by Airwaves Ducati's Shane Byrne.

In a drying session, which followed this morning's drenched third free practice, Sykes was able to stay with the Hondas and Ducatis but, most importantly of all, his team managed to get some proper wet settings sorted, something they have been slightly lacking so far this season.

He said: "I think I could have been a little further up if I hadn't been caught up in traffic at the end of the session but third place and the front row of the grid is fine as I know I can get away well. During free practice we worked our way through a number of wet settings and we have made some progress getting the bike nicely balanced for racing in the rain if it comes tomorrow.

"In the dry there is still a bit of work to be done as the front end is feeling a little vague at a couple of corners and I want the bike to be doing the work rather than me. I can put in consistent 1min 36s which is a good race pace so I feel confident ahead of tomorrow's races."