Sykes on second row

From Team Suzuki

Tom Sykes will head the second row of the grid from fifth place after his bid for pole position was foiled by heavy rain midway through the qualifying session for the fifth round of the Bennetts British Superbike Championship at Snetterton.

The 23-year-old had been consistently at the top of the time sheets throughout all three dry practices and was building up his pace during the 50-minute session when the rain fell and scuppered any chance of improving with 30 minutes remaining. His lap-times in the dry mark him out as a potential race winner tomorrow.

Rizla Suzuki team mate Atsushi Watanabe, on his first visit to the 1.952-mile airfield track, qualified 12th after taking more than three seconds off his lap times from the first practice session.

Ducati's Shane Byrne took pole position.

"It's hard not to be disappointed in fifth place after being in the top two in the previous sessions, but the truth is we are in much better shape than the qualifying result," Sykes said. "We didn't go banzai at the start of qualifying because we wanted to put together a tire test and that shows that I can run mid 1min 5secs laps right at the end of the race - that puts us in contention."

Qualifying Results
1. Shane Byrne (Ducati) 1:05.162
2. Cal Crutchlow (Honda) +0.099
3. Leon Camier (Ducati) +0.258
4. Leon Haslam (Honda) +0.335
5. Tom Sykes (Rizla Suzuki) +0.378
6. Karl Harris (Yamaha) +0.743
7. Michael Rutter (Ducati) +0.779
8. Michael Laverty (Suzuki) +0.845
9. Billy McConnell (Kawasaki) +0.920
10. James Ellison (Honda) +0.951