Alstare Bimota Junior's Christian Iddon mastered the changing conditions at Assen this afternoon in the opening round of the Showdown to claim his first pole position in the Datatag Qualifying session. It was a frustrating session for MCE Insurance British Superbike Championship leader Shane 'Shakey' Byrne who crashed out of Q2.

The opening session took place in dry conditions and Ryuichi Kiyonari continued to set the pace, but a dramatic Q2 session saw spots of rain begin to fall and the leading contenders were fighting to get through to the final Q3 session.

Peter Hickman hit the top of the times for the RAF Reserves Honda team but a lap later he crashed out and moments later Byrne launched himself into the gravel, but he was able to get up and walk away. The Rapid Solicitors Kawasaki rider will now start on the fourth row for tomorrow's opening race in twelfth.

The rain began to fall before Q3 with the session declared wet and then a frantic final ten minutes saw the order change several times at the top with Kiyonari forcing his way up the order. However the triple champion crashed out at turn two after setting the second fastest time, he was unhurt but as the times tumbled in the closing stages, he dropped to the second row in fourth for the Buildbase BMW team.

Iddon was changing on the Alstare Bimota Junior machine and moved to the top of the times and despite a last lap attack from John Hopkins and Tommy Bridewell he held a historic first pole position for the Italian manufacturer.

Iddon said:

"I am pleasantly surprised as I was not expecting this," said Iddon. "We had been working hard to set the bike for the dry and we are not quite there, but in these conditions it was a case of going out and enjoying it. We will have to see what improvements we can make now tomorrow to try and get in the mix with the leading guys."

Dan Linfoot looked set to move to the front row on his final lap, but it wasn't enough and had to settle for fifth ahead of Josh Brookes who completes row two tomorrow. Jon Kirkham and the Halsall Biker Gear Kawasaki team head the third row from Title Fighter Chris Walker on the leading Lloyds British GBmoto Racing Kawasaki. Martin Jessopp had his best qualifying performance of the season in ninth with Hickman able to complete a lap in Q3 to hold tenth.

MCE Insurance British Superbike Championship, Assen, Datatag Extreme Qualifying:

Christian Iddon (Alstare Bimota Junior Team) 1m:52.261s
John Hopkins (Tyco Suzuki) +0.131s
Tommy Bridewell (Milwaukee Yamaha) +0.411s
Ryuichi Kiyonari (Buildbase BMW) +0.517s
Dan Linfoot (Quattro Plant Kawasaki) +0.607s
Josh Brookes (Milwaukee Yamaha) +0.965s
Jon Kirkham (Halsall Biker Gear Kawasaki) +1.447s
Chris Walker (Lloyds British GBmoto Racing Kawasaki) +1.575s
Martin Jessopp (RidersMotorcycles BMW) +4.436s
Peter Hickman (RAF Reserves Honda) +5.185s



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