Shane Byrne was a happy man after grabbing his seventh front row starting position of the season at
Oulton Park, the latest round of the Bennetts British Superbike.
Having started no lower than third all year, Byrne's qualifying pace has been a contributory factor to his dominance this season and the Airwaves Ducati rider is now well placed to maintain his run of top two finishes.
Leaving it relatively late to climb the order, Byrne admits he probably could have gone quicker had he not lost a little bit of time behind Simon Andrews, although he isn't convinced it would have improved his position.
“The front row is always nice,” he told
Crash.net Radio. “Our worst qualifying position this year has been third place, so first or second is always good!
“I had a little bit of traffic on my best lap though because I was stuck behind Simon Andrews. Simon is not a slow rider but you take your eye off the ball a bit when you are directly behind someone.”
It wasn't a perfect session though as Byrne admits his Ducati 1098 is not reacting too well to the windy weather conditions. Indeed, a mistake on his final lap was caused by the wind knocking him offline.
“I pushed a bit harder on my second lap but I made a bit of a mistake and I nearly got blown off the track!
“The wind is affecting us a little bit. It just lifted the front of the bike at the first turn and i ended up running up the kerbs on the outside of the corner, so that really put paid to my final attempt.
“Second is more than alright for me, because it is probably the best place on the grid as it has a good clear run down to the first corner.”
