Sebastien Pourcel claimed his fourth 2008 MX1 pole position in six attempts during qualifying for the Grand Prix of Great Britain on Saturday.

The Kawasaki rider, winner of one grand prix so far this year but just sixth in the points after three non-scores, lapped the brand new Mallory Park circuit in a best time of 1min 51.239secs to edge out Dutchman Marc de Reuver.

de Reuver took his first premier class victory last time out in Italy and the Honda Martin rider continued his recent momentum on the heavily rutted British circuit to pip Suzuki's world champion Steve Ramon by just 0.048secs.

"The track is fun to ride and has a lot of nice jumps. It's pretty rough out there with plenty of deep ruts, which means that there are lots of lines to choose from and I like that," said Ramon of the Mallory circuit.

Estonian Tanel Leok made it two Kawasakis in the top four with Honda's Julian Bill the fifth and final rider to lap within one second of Pourcel.

KTM riders Jonathan Barragan and Max Nagl were sixth and seventh fastest with 2008 GP winner Ken de Dycker eighth on the second Teka Suzuki.

The leading Monster Yamaha rider was Josh Coppins in tenth position with world championship leading team-mate David Philippaerts a disappointing 14th fastest.

The top British rider was James Noble in twelfth, the privateer KTM rider just edging out countryman Billy Mackenzie's factory-spec CAS Honda.

But the home fans had far more reason to cheer in MX2 qualifying, with title contender Tommy Searle and fellow KTM rider Shaun Simpson producing a home one-two in the second heat.