Brands Hatch BSB: Ellison on pole as War for Four pressure reaches critical

James Ellison has controlled all three MCE British Superbike qualifying sessions to take pole position at Brands Hatch, exploiting his position outside the Showdown to make the post of the pressure heaping onto his main rivals.

With Ryuichi Kiyonari, the only man who can beat Shane Bryne, ruled out of the day’s action and possibly the title by a broken collarbone sustained in free practice this morning, the pressure is now on Shakey, who qualified second.

Third was Josh Brookes, again out of the title fight but keen to upset the day’s events for Byrne in particular, openly admitting in post qualifying comments that he’s cheering on for the Japanese rider to lift the title.

With the first race of the triple-header weekend scheduled for this afternoon in still far from ideal conditions, Ellison says he might have an opportunity to exploit from the absence of Kiyonari.

“With Kiyo and Shakey out the front, they could have set a fast pace battling hammer and tongs at the front. Right now, I think Shakey will want to dig deep and finish the year strongly – at the end of the day he wants to win races. It might be that it’s not going to work in my favour, but we’ve had strong pace all weekend, led all three sessions, and I’m happy I have the pace.”