Sittingbourne's Shane Byrne has set his sights on winning the battle of Britain during World Superbike round 10 after showing glimpses of his best in round nine at Brno.

The 33-year-old travelled to the Czech Republic nursing an injured left hand, damaged following a freak accident while testing in Imola where he was crashed into by fellow Brit Leon Haslam.

The Althea Racing rider shrugged off the problem and instead struggled for grip in Brno and had to settle for 16th on the grid after a below-par qualifying session.

Byrne’s grip issues wouldn’t go away and he improved just four places to 12th in race one on Sunday before moving up a further three to ninth in race two.

Britain's Jonathan Rea took the race honours in race one, while championship leader Max Biaggi picked up his fifth win from the last six races in race two.

Byrne (pictured) – who sits 12th in the standings with 108 points – admits there was plenty in his Brno performance to give him reason for optimism ahead of next month’s British round at Silverstone.

"In race one we didn’t have much grip and I think this conditioned my result but on the other hand race two was completely different," said Byrne.

"I was able to improve quite a lot, I lapped more than half a second faster than I did in race one in a race which I think everyone had trouble putting in fast lap times.

"Now I am banking on getting fully fit from my slight hand injury so I can be totally prepared to give things a real go at Silverstone.

"No one has ridden there since the changes to the track and this could be an interesting factor as far as the races are concerned – I’m looking forward to it."

World Superbike Championship races will be broadcast on Eurosport, with the European rounds also available in high definition. Eurosport is available on Sky 410 and Virgin Media 521. Eurosport HD is on Sky 412 and Virgin Media 522.