Double Donington Park winner Bradley Ray has put himself in the perfect position to challenge for his third win of the year after claiming pole this afternoon.

The Buildbase Suzuki rider had a slow start to the weekend as he struggled to find grip, but he picked it up in time for qualifying as he put himself right back in contention with three strong sessions.

It quickly became clear a top five placing was on the cards as the fastest nine headed out for the final session, and the championship leader quickly proved he was the man to beat with a hot lap of 44.997secs.

“I was struggling on Friday, we chased and chased and couldn’t find a good pace with harder tyre and I ended up stuck down in 17th,” he said.

“This morning I went on the zero and got the feeling back, this was what made the difference, it boosted my confidence so I was feeling a bit better as I went into qualifying.

“Every session we went out I was giving it 100 per cent. That’s what you’ve got to do, you can’t go out there and give it 90 per cent then 100 per cent, it just doesn’t work like that. You have to go hard and that’s what we did.”