Steve Hislop smashed the Cadwell Park lap record on his MonsterMob Ducati claiming pole start for the tenth round of the British Superbike Championship.

The 40 year old Isle of Man based Scot put in a stunning time of 1m 24.716s, a little over a second inside the record, during the warm-up session prior to Superpole.

In the one lap qualifying session the pressure was on Hislop as Michael Rutter chased a third consecutive pole start, aboard his Renegade Ducati. The Leicestershire-based rider had his sights firmly fixed on the cash bonus of £2000, which was up for grabs and put in a time of 1m 25.486s around the 2.17 mile Lincolnshire circuit.

The Championship leader had the perfect answer, running inch-perfect, he bettered Rutter's time by a tenth of a second to take his first pole since the second round back in April.

The delighted Scot commented: "The warm-up lap was fantastic and the Superpole was faultless though maybe I was not quite so aggressive as I could have been. I like to think that I can now get out there and provide a repeat performance of last year, when I won both races here - nothing else will do. I need to get back to winning and increase my advantage in the title chase." Hislop is currently 19 points clear, of second place Sean Emmett.

Emmett was sixth fastest aboard his Virgin Mobile Aiwa Yamaha, with a best lap time of 1m 26.212s. The Weybridge-based rider commented. "I will be giving it everything - it is important not to allow Steve to open the points gap any more, even though this is a circuit on which he always goes well."

Shane Byrne and the local favourite Steve Plater start alongside Hislop and Rutter on the front row of the grid while the reigning Champion John Reynolds was marginally faster than Emmett aboard his Rizla Suzuki GSX-R 1000.

SuperBike

1. Hislop
2. Rutter
3. Byrne
4. Plater
5. Reynolds
6. Emmett
7. Thomas
8. Crafar
9. Richards
10. Mason

SuperSport

1. Smart
2. Laverty
3. Easton
4. Wilson
5. Goodall
6. Tunstall
7. Jennings
8. Ramsay
9. Jennes
10. Smith

22. Damian Cudlin