Sittingbourne's British Superbikes rider Shane Byrne leapt to the defence of his round seven performance at Oulton Park despite enduring another tough weekend in Cheshire.

Byrne, pictured, who won the opening race win of the season, has led the championship ever since but in recent weeks the HM Plant Honda rider has struggled to find top form.

That trend continued at Oulton Park with Byrne qualifying in fourth, over half-a-second slower than pole-sitter John Hopkins, and, despite leading briefly, that is where he finished.

Incessant rain then led to the cancellation of race two, although Byrne’s 13-point haul was enough to see him remain at the head of overall standings – 32 clear of Hopkins.

“If you think about missing out on the podium too much then you’ll drive yourself mad and that will force yourself into making more mistakes and putting more pressure in yourself,” said Byrne.

“I have been around racing long enough to know what goes around comes around. We have had a pretty good run until now and really we should have won the race at Snetterton when I finished fourth.

“And that would have brought us here in a different mindset but I have been still been riding well but I lost out on a podium on the last corner.

“It was a little bit frustrating but at the same time I am really pleased that we were actually up there because I didn’t feel comfortable at all out there.

“So the fact that we were fighting for a podium in the first place more than outweighs the fact that we didn’t quite get it.”

British Eurosport 2 will be broadcasting every round of the 2011 British Superbike Championship. The channel is available on Sky 411 and Virgin Media 525. Watch online via the Eurosport Player at www.eurosportplayer.co.uk