STOBART Vent Axia Motorsport rider Tom Sykes continued his impressive form by qualifying on the front row for round ten of the Bennetts British Superbike Championship at a warm and sunny Croft Circuit in North Yorkshire.

The 21-year-old Huddersfield rider was holding provisional pole position time for most of the 50-minute session as he continued to impress in his rookie season, but towards the end of the session he dropped back to fourth position but importantly will start today's two 20-lap races from the front row of the grid.

If the qualifying session was good for Sykes it was a disaster for team mate Shane Shakey' Byrne who slid off not once, but twice and as a result will start from row three of the grid on what is only his second visit to the circuit.

Byrne had a technical problem during yesterday morning's free practice session and was hoping to improve but a couple of mistakes hampered his bid as he goes into today's two races.

"There's not a lot I can say. I'm extremely disappointed and I've given myself a mountain to climb tomorrow," said Byrne. "I will be giving it my all and we've yet to find out whether it will be wet or dry which could have a bearing on our result."

Sykes, meanwhile, said he was happy enough with his race set-up.

"We put a qualifier in early on and that paid off as I got a clear lap and posted my fastest time," he said. "Towards the end of the session I got caught up in a lot of traffic but a front row start is perfect and is what we were aiming for.

"I just want a decent start tomorrow and hope I can get away with them and I'm looking forward to it."

The first of the Bennetts British Superbike races gets underway at 1.20pm with the second one screened live on ITV1 at 3.20pm.

Qualifying 1, Cal Crutchlow (Suzuki) 1m19.108s, 2, Jonathan Rea (Honda) 1m19.191s, 3, Leon Haslam (Ducati) 1m19.209s, 4, Tom Sykes (Stobart Vent Axia Motorsport Honda) 1m19.269s, 5, Tommy Hill (Yamaha) 1m19.373s, 6, Gregorio Lavilla (Ducati) 1m19.456s, 7, Ryuichi Kiyonari (Honda) 1m19.462s, 8, Leon Camier (Honda) 1m19.589s, 9, Chris Walker (Suzuki) 1m19.920s, 10, Karl Harris (Honda) 1m20.257s, 11, Shane Byrne (Stobart Vent Axia Motorsport Honda) 1m20.362s.