Japanese race-ace Ryuichi Kiyonari shattered the Mallory Park lap record to grab pole start for the double race third round of the Bennetts British Superbike Championship away from his HM Plant Honda team-mate Michael Rutter.

The championship leader – unbeaten so far this season – recorded the fastest ever lap of the 1.39 mile Leicestershire circuit in the final couple of minutes of the session, recording a time of 50.593secs, some 1.2 seconds in side the record, but barely a third of a second faster than Rutter.

“Very good, very fast – I like this circuit and want more victories here, but I also know that these races are very important to Michael,” smiled Kiyonari as he enjoyed his second pole start of the season.

Between them they had dominated the two periods of qualifying. Within five minutes of the start, Kiyonari had bettered the record, and he improved on that time a further four times but it was Rutter who ends the morning with the smiles, having grabbed the initiative with a lap of 51.044secs.

Kiyonari hit back in the afternoon, nosing ahead, but once again Rutter, who lives adjacent to the circuit answered the challenge with a great lap, only be eclipsed once again.

The Hawk Kawasaki duo of Glen Richards and Dean Thomas complete the front row of the grid. Karl Harris heads the second row, with Leon Haslam and Scott Smart just adrift with second in the title stakes Gregorio Lavilla, confirmed now as an Airwaves Ducati rider for the remainder of the season, eighth fastest.

Defending champion John Reynolds, battling bravely on despite the pain from his broken right leg was ninth fastest, 51.497secs, aboard the Rizla Suzuki, a split second up on British Superbike Cup contender James Buckingham riding the privateer Quay Garage Suzuki.

Jeremy McWilliams faces an uphill struggle – the former grand prix rider managed only 21st best time aboard the Stobart Honda, with a best lap time of 52.004secs.

Rizla Suzuki Report

Rizla Suzuki's Scott Smart and John Reynolds will start tomorrow's third-round British Superbike Championship at Mallory Park in seventh and ninth positions.

Smart worked hard on the handling of his GSX-R1000 during both qualification sessions and was disappointed not to have had a clear lap at the end of the final one to improve his time.

Reynolds suffered from cramp in his broken right leg in the morning session. A massage helped the British Superbike Champion through second qualifying and he took an impressive ninth place to head the third row on the grid.

Both Rizla Suzuki riders were well under the 1.39-mile long Mallory Park track record of 51.722s.

Honda's Ryuichi Kiyonari will start from pole position.

Scott Smart: "We worked to refine the handling on my GSX-R1000 today and we have achieved a lot. I will now sit down with my crew and decide on a final set-up for the races. We will then trial that in morning warm-up and hopefully go even faster than today.

"Seventh on the second row is a fair starting position but I was only one-tenth-of-a-second behind fourth. I didn't get a final flying lap at the end of qualification but I am sure I could have challenged for the front row."

John Reynolds: "In first qualifying I was suffering from cramp in the back of my right leg. Now the bones are healing, I am asking more of the muscles and they are protesting. I had a massage in between qualification sessions and felt 100 per cent better in the afternoon. I'll be going back to the physiotherapist tomorrow before the races.

"My Rizla Suzuki crew has been incredible again. Everything I ask for I get and my GSX-R1000 is absolutely on the money. It is capable of going a full-second faster if I was fully fit. I'm starting to enjoy my riding and racing again and that is the best feeling in the World."

Robert Wicks - Team Manager: "Both riders improved their lap times from this morning and are starting from strong top-10 positions on the grid. They will be forces to be reckoned with in the races tomorrow.

"If Scott and JR can get good starts and away with the lead group, we know that Mallory Park provides plenty of overtaking opportunities for them to work their way up the field. Being such a short lap, backmarkers are also likely to play their part in the outcome. One thing's for sure; the entire Rizla Suzuki team will be giving its all and the racing will certainly be exciting."

Dean Thomas

"Well you could say it's been a pretty good day today and I've ended up with my first front row of the year for Hawk Kawasaki. I finished fourth on the grid just behind my team-mate Glen Richards which I'm extremely happy with. I was desperate to get on the front row and hopefully get a good start and not get mixed up in the melee behind me.

"The race tomorrow is going to be seriously intense and very close racing and back-markers will play a huge part in it. We've been very lucky with the weather so far this weekend as it was supposed to rain from Friday onwards, but so far it has stayed away. If it holds off until 6pm-tomorrow night I'll be more than happy.

"The bike feels great and we've found ourselves a really good race set up for tomorrow, I've been doing consistent times on race tyres which has given me confidence as we head into the two races tomorrow. It's the teams local circuit so I'd like to get some good results here and to give me a boost for when we head to Mallory next weekend."

Aussie Update

The closely contested Virgin Yamaha R6 Cup sees two Australian youngsters on the front row for tomorrow with South Australia's Brendan Roberts on pole position with his compatriot Billy McConnell at the other end of the front row after qualifying fourth.

Two Australians also make it on to the front row in Superbike with the Kawasaki pairing of Glen Richards and Dean Thomas.  Paul Young qualified 11th in Supersport and 3rd in 1,000cc Superstock.  David Johnson starts from the second row in 1,000cc Superstock while Rory Rock and Damian Cudlin took 18th and 19h positions on the grid.