Shane Byrne clinches historic sixth title after Leon Haslam suffers terrible crash

In the third race of the weekend, following two wins for the BeWiser Ducati rider, Leon Haslam crashed out to end his title hopes, having started the race with a two-point lead over Byrne.

After a now characteristically bad start, Byrne was 6th with Haslam 5th at the end of the first lap as Christian Iddon took the lead.

But Haslam's brakes seemed to fail, ending his hopes, before Josh Brookes went on to win the race from Jason O'Halloran and James Ellison.

Byrne was eighth, giving him the title by three points from Brookes, and six from Haslam.

Byrne started 21 points behind Haslam, but shot to the front of the pack in the early laps. He never let the lead slip, with Iddon and Ellison finishing behind him.

Haslam, who got off to a good start and was initially sandwiched between Byrne and the other title contender Brookes, began to slip further and further back, eventually settling in 10th place.

It meant Byrne was just two points behind Haslam, going into the final race of the season.

Byrne, chasing his sixth title, won by 1.799 seconds from Iddon, with fellow title fighters Brookes and Haslam third and fourth respectively.

It means the JG Speedfit Kawasaki rider Haslam, who was passed by Brookes and Iddon early on, before making back a place, saw his lead slashed by 12 points to 21, with two races remaining in the championship.

It came after an early red flag, with Sylvain Guintoli, Dan Linfoot and Jake Dixon crashing out, with the race restarted shortly afterwards over 16 laps rather than 20.