Rea fastest at Croft

Rea intends to move ahead of his HM Plant Honda team-mate, the series leading Ryuichi Kiyonari, in his pursuit of the country's premier crown.

The 20-year-old Ballyclare racer goes into these races trailing the Japanese rider, and current title holder, by 16 points, but he knows it could have been less but for his tumble while lying second in the previous round at Mallory Park.

"That was disappointing, but it is a long championship," reflected Rea. "Now we are here at one of my favourite circuits and I am looking forward to these races and some good points. I want the title, that is my focus."

He underlined those words with a series of consistent laps, the best of which around this challenging 2.125 mile North Yorkshire circuit came in a time of 1m 19.839secs, an average speed of 95.81mph during the morning.

Rea did not improve on that during the afternoon, though a tumble at Tower hardly affected his rhythm and he bounced back to put in a lap of 1m 20.110secs.

Gregorio Lavilla, the champion of two years ago, is keen to ride his way out of a lean mid-term spell, and he powered in a best lap of 1m 20.225secs aboard his Airwaves Ducati to be running a tenth of a second up on Kiyonari.

Leon Haslam, currently third in the overall standings, ran fourth best, 1m 20.404secs, and the 24 year old Derbyshire rider is eager for an action replay of his last corner, last lap victory of the corresponding round last term which put his title bid right on track.

Haslam missed out on the crown at the final hurdle but is better placed in the points tables now, 32 down on the leader, and is poised to strike, always providing he can maintain the consistency that has made him the only rider among the top four contenders to have scored points in every round.

Tom Sykes continued the form that he showed in pre-event testing last here month, with a strong lap in 1m 20.411secs to be fifth up on the Stobart Vent Axia Motorsport Honda, just a split second ahead of Rizla Suzuki rider Cal Crutchlow and Tommy Hill riding the Virgin Media Optoma Loans Yamaha.

Shane Byrne, who enjoyed his first victory in over a year in the previous round, ran eighth, with a time of 1m 20.619secs, ahead of Leon Camier and Michael Rutter.

Tristan Palmer, the leader in the British Superbike Cup, set the pace among the privateers with a best lap of 1m 23.780secs aboard the THR Honda, with Marty Nutt, riding through the pain barrier of injuries sustained at Mallory Park, closing within 0.14secs, with Tom Tunstall and James Buckingham in close contention.