Kyle Ryde sent an ominous message to his British Superbike Championship rivals in qualifying at Donington Park by claiming his sixth pole position of the 2026 season.
Ryde’s best lap-time of 1:26.249 put the reigning two-champion over half-a-second clear of the field (0.534s) and in full control ahead of the opening race later on this afternoon.
The Nitrous Coin Nitrous Competitions Racing rider has a sublime record at his home circuit, with 12 career victories in the Superbike class. He won twice at Donington earlier this season and won three out of the four Sprint-length races held there last September.
Ryan Vickers’ impressive form continued in second, with Bradley Ray able to put his McAMS Yamaha onto the front row in third. Vickers did however suffer a slight mishap on his.
Scott Redding has work to do if he’s to take points away from Ryde in the title fight, with the Hager PBM Ducati rider qualifying fourth. The 2019 champion will be joined on the second row by Max Cook and Rory Skinner.
Glenn Irwin heads row three on the second Nitrous Competitions machine, qualifying ahead of Ilya Mikhalchik, Danny Kent and Christian Iddon.
Joe Talbot qualified 11 th after going through Q1 onboard the AJN Steelstock Bimota , whilst Storm Stacey and Lee Jackson ended their respective sessions in 12 th and 13 th . Jason O’Halloran qualified 14 th after topping Q1.
Leon Haslam failed to record a competitive lap-time in Q2 and was seen riding slowly on the grass in the closing seconds of the session. The 2017 champion will start Race One from 15 th .
Eugene McManus was the best of the rest in Q1 onboard the MasterMac Honda and will start Race One from 16 th on the grid. The Irishman will be joined on row six by Josh Brookes and teammate Rhys Irwin.
TAG Honda duo Fraser Rogers and Scott Swann will line-up alongside each other in 19 th and 20 th respectively ahead of Richard Kerr, Luke Hedger and Brayden Elliot.
Andrew Irwin crashed out of Q1 at the Old Hairpin and will have to start the opening race of the weekend from the back of the grid (24 th ).
The first BSB race is scheduled to take place at 16:15.
Sports Reporter - Motorcycle racing enthusiast Josh joined the MCN team in 2019. He studied Sports Journalism at the University of Sunderland, leaving with a 2:1 and a Gold Standard Diploma in Journalism from the National Council for the Training of Journalists (NCTJ). Introduced to the world of motorcycle racing by his dad as a youngster, Josh became a fan of MotoGP, WorldSBK and BSB. Like many, Josh became a huge Valentino Rossi supporter…little did he know that years later he would ask a question or two to the man himself.
Sports Reporter and fan of all things motorsport