Hill's forgetfulness did not hamper the Swan Yamaha rider's performance though, as he set the best lap with a time of one minute 15.26 seconds around the drying out Hampshire circuit.

"The noise was deafening and I was very close to coming in," said the defending champion. " I have a bit of a headache coming on and I will be hearing the bike all night now.

"At the start it was a bit of a do or die effort but we had to get the job done and this is the good start I needed to finally put the memories of the first round behind me."

Hill failed to finish the only race of the opening round at Brands Hatch, where heavy rain and cold led to the second race being cancelled.

But he will have a chance to make up for that tomorrow when he will start both races from pole after edging out the Padgetts Honda of Ian Lowry, Michael Rutter's MSS Bathams Kawasaki and the WFR Honda of James Westmoreland.

Jon Kirkham, winner of the opening round at Brands Hatch on the Samsung Honda, was ninth quickest and will start from row three.

Row four sees leading riders Michael Laverty, Shane Byrne and Noriyuki Haga face a difficult task as gambles on tyre choices in the changing conditions failed to pay off.