Danny Buchan will line up in pole position for this afternoon’s opening Bennetts British Superbike Championship race at Snetterton after setting the only 1’47s lap during qualifying.

The Massingberd-Mundy Kawasaki rider relegated long time pace-setter Bradley Ray to second with just five minutes of the session to go although Kyle Ryde (Buildbase Suzuki) got to within 0.067s of Buchan’s lap of 1’47.953s with Ray having to settle for third on the Synetiq BMW.

After scoring just four points at the opening round at Donington Park two weeks ago, Ray is clearly a lot happier with the BMW S1000RR at the Norfolk circuit and he looked on course for the top spot before being pushed back to third.

Nevertheless, he’ll be pleased with the front row although both Buchan and Ryde have looked in ominous form all weekend, the duo consistently at the top of the timesheets.

Ryde’s late lap pushed Josh Brookes (VisionTrack Ducati) back to fourth and the second row where he’ll be joined by Championship leader Glenn Irwin (Honda Racing) and Buchan’s team-mate Lee Jackson although only two tenths of a second covered the leading five riders.

Brookes’ team-mate Christian Iddon took seventh, one place ahead of the second Honda of Andrew Irwin although the latter will have to start the 16-lap race from the back of the grid, a legacy of his disqualification from the final race at Donington Park last time out.

Ryan Vickers qualified in ninth place on the RAF Regular & Reserve Kawasaki and will be keen to take his pace and form into the three races at his local round whilst Jason O’Halloran completed the top ten on the leading McAMS Yamaha, still only half a second adrift of Buchan.

Donington Park race winner Tommy Bridewell took 12th on the Oxford Racing Products Ducati.