Poleman Glenn Irwin heaped praise on younger brother and team-mate Andrew, and rubbished suggestions that it was a tow that got him to his first front-row start.

The Be Wiser Ducati team-mates had emerged together for Q2 this afternoon, and the elder sibling led his younger brother on a fast lap, which gave Andrew the best time of the session.

But as the top nine headed into the final shoot-out of the day, Glenn took control with a hot lap of 1’14.565, a time which was to go unbeaten as Luke Mossey qualified second and Andrew bagged third.

And Glenn proved that the brotherly love is stronger than ever as he appeared even more excited than Andrew to see him top the second session timesheets, before praising his efforts later on.

“It was great out there, particularly in Q2 when we were together,” he said. “It’s tough to get into the top nine – for me, Leon, Luke, everyone – let alone a young kid so this is great.”

“I got a good lap with a 14.5 and I looked behind and I could see he was ecstatic. I was trying to work out if it was a four, a three or a five and hoping it wasn’t quicker than me, but he did a really, really good job, it’s fantastic what he’s doing.”

Irwin also dismissed the suggestion that it was all about the Q2 tow. “To go out and put it on the front row shows it wasn’t a total one off, he said. “It’s fine people saying he got a tow but to get a tow you have to be able to do it.”