Alex Lowes continued his strong form in the British Superbike Championship showdown with a second successive pole position at Silverstone. The WFR Honda youngster, 36 points off the overall lead, was the thick end of a second clear of the opposition with Tommy Hill and Michael Laverty, other two riders with work to do, completing the top three.
Lowes was the man to beat all day, setting the fastest time in final practice, and his quickest time in Q2 would’ve actually secured pole position in Q3, such was his level of dominance. As it was, Lowes found eight tenths of a second to comfortably outpace Hill with Laverty pipping championship leader Josh Brookes to third. Shane Byrne will start race one from fifth but that will have been a relief to the Londoner who escaped a high speed crash at Chapel on Friday.
But Lowes will be the man to watch on race day and stands a good chance of keeping his title challenge alive heading to the Brands Hatch finale. The 22 year old is optimistic that he can go one better than Assen and convert pole into race victory.
“That was a pretty good lap – we had struggled a bit with tyre choice and had changed the bike settings a lot and practice had gone OK. I had felt pretty quick all of the way across the weekend and the bike is feeling good, so we will see what happens now in the races. I am going to enjoy them and I really want podium finishes tomorrow.”
Tommy Hill is also in need of two podium finishes at the very least as he looks to claw back Brookes’ 22 point advantage and the first task will be to avoid the pre-race trouble that rocked him last weekend.
“It is good to be back on the front row and hopefully we won’t have any more stunts tomorrow in the races! We have knuckled down again and have been getting on with business as we really want wins bad. Qualifying was good for us and we have made good changes each session. We can’t have any excuses and we know where we need to be for the races tomorrow. We need to get stuck in and get some results to get points in the bag and move forward. I am feeling pretty confident and we need to go out to get results tomorrow to try and win this championship again.”
The sixth title challenger Tommy Bridewell is already starting to slip out of contention after being knocked out in Q2. The Supersonic BMW rider will start tomorrow’s opener from twelfth on the grid behind Jakub Smrz with the remaining places in the top ten taken by Chris Walker, James Westmoreland, Barry Burrell, Peter Hickman and Danny Buchan.
2012 MCE Insurance British Superbike Championship
Round 11: Silverstone (Qualifying Result)
| Pos | Rider | Bike | Team | Time/Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Alex Lowes • |
Honda | Team WFR | 2:05.662 |
| 2 | Tommy Hill • |
Yamaha | Swan Yamaha | +0.825 |
| 3 | Michael Laverty • |
Honda | Samsung Honda | +0.891 |
| 4 |  Josh Brookes • |
Suzuki | Tyco Suzuki | +1.040 |
| 5 | Shane Byrne • |
Kawasaki | Rapid Solicitors Kawasaki | +1.113 |
| 6 | Chris Walker |
Kawasaki | Pr1mo Bournemouth Kawasaki | +1.492 |
| 7 | J Westmoreland |
Honda | Team WFR | +1.767 |
| 8 | Barry Burrell |
BMW | Buildbase BMW Motorrad | +1.782 |
| 9 | Peter Hickman |
BMW | Buildbase BMW Motorrad | +1.878 |
| 10 | Danny Buchan |
Kawasaki | MSS Bathams Kawasaki | No Time |
| Eliminated In Q2 (P10: 2:07.487) | ||||
| 11 |  Jakub Smrz |
Aprilia | Splitlath Redmond Racing | 2:07.601 |
| 12 | Tommy Bridewell • |
BMW | Supersonic Racing Team | 2:07.777 |
| 13 |  Luca Scassa |
Honda | Padgetts Racing | 2:07.866 |
| 14 |  Patric Muff |
BMW | Supersonic Racing Team | 2:08.006 |
| 15 | Ian Lowry |
Honda | Padgetts Racing | 2:08.060 |
| 16 | Jon Kirkham |
Honda | Samsung Honda | 2:08.209 |
| 17 | Stuart Easton |
Kawasaki | Rapid Solicitors Kawasaki | 2:08.211 |
| 18 | Karl Harris |
Kawasaki | Quattro Plant Kawasaki | 2:08.267 |
| 19 |  Noriyuki Haga |
Yamaha | Swan Yamaha | 2:08.403 |
| 20 | Scott Smart |
Ducati | Moto Rapido Racing | 2:08.955 |
| Eliminated In Q1 (P20: 2:08.921) | ||||
| 21 |  Robbin Harms |
Honda | Doodson Motorsport | 2:08.980 |
| 22 | Matteo Baiocco |
Ducati | Moto Rapido Racing | 2:09.079 |
| 23 | Alastair Seeley |
Suzuki | Tyco Suzuki | 2:09.153 |
| 24 | Tristan Palmer |
Honda | GBmoto Racing | 2:09.331 |
| 25 | Luke Quigley |
Honda | GBmoto Racing | 2:09.334 |
| 26 | Michael Rutter |
Kawasaki | MSS Bathams Kawasaki | 2:09.380 |
| 27 | John Laverty |
Kawasaki | Pr1mo Bournemouth Kawasaki | 2:10.780 |
| 28 | Troy Herfoss |
Aprilia | Splitlath Redmond Racing | 2:12.444 |
| 29 | Tom Tunstall |
Honda | Doodson Motorsport | 2:12.476 |
| 30 | Jenny Tinmouth |
Honda | Hardinge Sorrymate.com Honda | 2:13.967 |
| 31 | Aaron Zanotti |
Suzuki | A-Plant Suzuki | No Time |
| • Championship Challenger | ||||
