Leon Haslam beat his MCE Insurance British Superbike Championship rival Shane 'Shakey' Byrne to the finish line by just 0.010s in an incredibly hard-fought opening race at Assen, closing five points on the standings leader.

At the start of the race James Ellison initially led the pack from pole-sitter Byrne with Luke Mossey, Jason O'Halloran and Leon Haslam all in close contention. Mossey was instantly on the move and the young contender dived through ahead of Ellison to lead mid-way through the opening lap, but as they crossed the line he had repaid the move to regain the position.

By lap three Mossey was leading the field from Ellison and Byrne, but the pair were pushing him hard and both went for a move within three corners a few laps later to push him back into third place. Byrne then was hounding Ellison and made a decisive move on lap seven to take the advantage.

Byrne led the pack as they streamed across the line to start the eighth lap, but Haslam was then the rider moving through the field as he moved ahead of Mossey and then moved second with a dive on his team-mate to move into second.

By lap ten Byrne and Haslam were dicing intensely for the advantage, Haslam hit the front of the front of the pack with Ellison making it a JG Speedfit Kawasaki one-two as they pushed Byrne back into third place.

Ellison then traded blows with his team-mate as he made a big move on the eleventh lap to lead the field, but Haslam fought back to lead with a move at the chicane.

A lap later and Byrne was ready for retaliation; he moved around the outside of Ellison and then made a move on Haslam at the front to move back into the lead. On the penultimate lap though Haslam and Byrne were pushing each other all the way to the finish, with multiple passes before the JG Speedfit Kawasaki rider narrowly won the drag to the line, with Ellison completing the podium.

Linfoot managed to hold off team-mate O’Halloran for fourth place with Laverty in sixth after keeping Mossey at bay over the final stages of the race. Richard Cooper was eighth after keeping ahead of the ePayMe Yamaha pairing of Broc Parkes and John Hopkins.

MCE Insurance British Superbike Championship, Assen, race one result:

Leon Haslam (JG Speedfit Kawasaki)Shane Byrne (Be Wiser Ducati) +0.010sJames Ellison (JG Speedfit Kawasaki) +2.272sDan Linfoot (Honda Racing) +4.489sJason O'Halloran (Honda Racing) +4.697sMichael Laverty (Tyco BMW) +5.128sLuke Mossey (Quattro Plant Teccare Kawasaki) +5.128sRichard Cooper (Buildbase BMW) +6.300sBroc Parkes (ePayMe Yamaha) +6.440sJohn Hopkins (ePayMe Yamaha) +6.957s

MCE Insurance British Superbike Championship standings after Assen race one:

Shane Byrne (Be Wiser Ducati) 613Leon Haslam (JG Speedfit Kawasaki) 591Dan Linfoot (Honda Racing) 553James Ellison (JG Speedfit Kawasaki) 551Jason O'Halloran (Honda Racing) 540Luke Mossey (Quattro Plant Teccare Kawasaki) 523