Jonathan Rea finished second fastest in today’s opening qualifying session for Sunday’s two tenth round World Superbike championship races at Silverstone in the UK. The 23-year-old had topped the earlier free practice session but had to cede provisional pole position to fellow Brit, Cal Crutchlow.

“I really enjoyed riding the circuit today – it’s like it fills me full of happy pills because it’s all new and fresh! The bike is working OK straight away

and I got up to a good rhythm pretty much from the off and qualifying was good. We’ve still got some more work to do tomorrow but I’m looking forward to making improvements,” said Rea.

After taking a win and a second place last time out at Brno in the Czech Republic, Rea’s good form continued into last weekend’s prestigious Suzuka 8 Hour race, where he finished on the podium, and the Northern Irishman relished Silverstone’s new 5.902km layout in today’s two sessions.

“The bumps are bumps and they’re same for everybody and we spent this afternoon working more on the gearing and trying to get the right compromise for that. But it’s always fun when you come to a new circuit – the layout’s really nice, but it’s just that the bumps and the surface isn’t great,” he said

His Hannspree Ten Kate Honda team-mate, Max Neukirchner, also liked the new circuit, although, like many other riders, its bumps caused him some issues. The German rider finished 18th fastest today, after crashing unhurt at turn one towards the end of the qualifying session.

“I think I like the circuit but there are a lot of bumps so it’s not easy to get the right chassis set-up so I think you must live with a not perfect setting. Of course the crash was bad for me – I put in a new rear but the front was already 17 laps old. The bike carried on for maybe 200 metres more and hit the wall, so the front end looks not so good. I’m sorry for my guys who have a lot more work to do now,” said Neukirchner.

Neukirchner had just put in a new rear Pirelli for a faster lap but the crash ended his session. His Honda CRB1000RR righted itself, however, and went head on into a track-side barrier, causing extensive damage.

“I think that, for all the World Superbike riders, today was more about learning the track rather than setting up a bike for it. From tomorrow we can really start to make some changes to the bike to improve it. Johnny was quick from the box today and his Suzuka 8 Hour experience definitely didn’t slow him down at all. Max was on a decent pace as well and just when we put the new tyre in for him to set a fast lap time he had a small crash with big damage, which was a pity. But we’ll be back for more tomorrow,” said team manager Ronald ten Kate