Source: Supplied.

Josh Brookes claimed pole position by annihilating the existing lap record to set the fastest ever Superbike lap of Silverstone during Datatag Qualifying ahead of tomorrow’s MCE Insurance British Superbike Championship races.

The championship leader had the edge on all of his Title Fighter rivals, upping the pace in each of the three stages before dipping into the 2m:03s window to smash his previous best time, but John Hopkins was only 0.297s adrift for the Lloyds British Moto Rapido Ducati team.

Hopkins had fired in his lap in the closing stages of the session to close the deficit whilst Christian Iddon delivered his best qualifying performance of the season to score Bennetts Suzuki their first front row start of the season as the Showdown spoilers mixed up the Title Fighters.

James Ellison heads the second row on the leading Kawasaki; the JG Speedfit Kawasaki rider held off Luke Mossey and the second Milwaukee Yamaha of Jakub Smrz to claim fourth position on the timesheets.

Peter Hickman forced his way into the final stage of qualifying and he held seventh place to be the top BMW contender for the RAF Reserves squad ahead of Michael Laverty on the Tyco BMW. Dan Linfoot held eighth for Honda Racing to make it all six manufacturers inside the top ten.

It was a nightmare session though for defending champion Shane ‘Shakey’ Byrne he will start tenth on the grid for tomorrow’s opening race, but the PBM Kawasaki rider is confident that the team will have resolved the issue ahead of the two crucial races.

Click here for detailed results