James Ellison takes pole as Leon Haslam makes most of rivals' slips

Updated 30/09/2017 at 16:41 GMT

James Ellison swept to pole position in qualifying in Assen on Saturday as the second British Superbike Showdown weekend got underway.

James Ellison

Image credit: Eurosport

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The McAMS Yamaha rider made the best of some wet conditions with a time of 1m 54.027s ahead of Kawasaki’s Leon Haslam – the current championship leader – as the other Title Fighters missed out in Q3.

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Shane Byrne, Josh Brookes, Jake Dixon and Jason O’Halloran all failed to make it into the final qualifying session. Brookes, who is second in the title race, will start in 11th, with Dixon a place behind. O’Halloran is in 16th while Byrne, who fell off twice in Q2, is 17th in what is a blow to his hopes of claiming a sixth title.

The sixth Title Fighter, Peter Hickman, also fell in Q1 and could only qualify in 19th.

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