The HM Plant Honda team will start from the third row of the grid for tomorrow’s opening race at the fifth round of the British Superbike Championship at Knockhill with Shane 'Shakey' Byrne qualifying ninth and Ryuichi Kiyonari in twelfth.

'Shakey' looked set to be in contention for the pole position but in the final qualifying session he crashed out at the Chicane which curtailed his charge. Kiyo continued to try and work on the optimum set up, but with changing conditions it was another challenging session for the defending champion.

In the Superstock 1000 Championship Jason O’Halloran will start from the third row of the grid in ninth place for tomorrow’s race as the Australian continued to suffer with rear grip problems that left him fighting hard to move up the order in the final qualifying session.

Shakey said:

“I am obviously a bit frustrated to have crashed as I had got away with that line in the previous two sessions. It must have just got slightly wetter and it caught me out when I touched the white line; the front unloaded and down I went. It was a bit of a novice mistake as I was feeling good for the front row but I am sure the HM Plant Honda boys will get everything sorted for me tomorrow and we can challenge them at the front even from the third row.”

Kiyo said:

“A third row start is not good and the weather has made it difficult today in qualifying as it wasn’t wet or dry at some points and was changing. For all wet or all dry on track I would have been ok, but it was hard to push in those conditions without crashing. Tomorrow we should have the pace if the conditions are one or the other and I am not going to give up. I am going to be pushing in the races tomorrow.”

Jason said:

“We made some sideways steps today and the HM Plant Honda Fireblade is feeling better to ride than yesterday but we are still struggling to find the rear grip that we need to open the throttle a bit earlier. We were able to move up the order but we just need to find some more grip as then we can push on harder. We have the speed we just can’t covert it into lap times at the moment.”

Team Manager Havier Beltran concluded:

“Qualifying conditions were far from ideal today and Kiyo just missed out on the top ten with the rain falling harder at the end of the session. Shakey just made a small mistake and caught the white line, but both riders are fine and we know the team are capable of a podium finish tomorrow. At Thruxton Shakey started at the back and was on the podium so he knows he is more than capable tomorrow. Jason has been struggling with grip here and we have a few things still to try in the morning warm up, but he just needs to remain consistent in the race.”