SWAN Yamaha's Tommy Hill will start from the front row of the grid for today's opening race at the fourth round of the MCE Insurance British Superbike Championship at Thruxton after qualifying third fastest, while Michael Laverty will start from the row two.

Hill had topped the second of the three qualifying sessions for the Guisborough team and then was ready to challenge for his second pole position of the season, however in the final stages he missed out by just 0.022 seconds. team-mate Laverty continued to work on getting the best possible set-up for tomorrow's two races and will start from seventh on the grid.

Hill said: "We have tried to muscle on again this weekend and I have put the injury to the back of my mind and so far have been consistent throughout the sessions.

"We wanted another front row here and that's what we achieved but we are happy with our pace for tomorrow's races.

"We did a good time in the second session and then we were just unfortunate in Q3, but we are happy enough so tomorrow it will be a case of just needing to get stuck in and try and get the Swan Yamaha back on the podium."

Laverty said: "I am pretty happy with how things went today, obviously I didn't get the lap time in that I wanted in the final qualifying session, but we have a good set-up and I believe we will be in a stronger position over the second part of the race due to our hard work.

"It could all be in vain if the weather changes tomorrow but either way we are hoping for two consistent finishes tomorrow."

Alex Lowes marked his debut with the MSS Colchester Kawasaki team by powering to his and the team's maiden pole start in the top flight.

Lowes had been the pace-maker in the chase for honours in the Mirror.co.uk BSB-EVO class until he lost his ride amid a contractual wrangle with the WFR Honda team after the Croft round. He answered a call from the Kawasaki team to deputise for their injured rider Stuart Easton who suffered multiple injuries in a crash during practice for the North West 200 race.

"It is just an awesome feeling, mega. In each of the sessions, I was able to go faster and that really is a testament to the work that had been put in on the bike by Stuart," said Lowes.