Gino Rea has said that both bike and team experience, as well as circuit knowledge, have all played into his favour as he sped to today's second fastest time.

The OMG Racing Suzuki rider, who had finished on top of the first practice session, was only beaten by championship leader Leon Haslam in the second session as he lost out on bragging rights by just 0.138s.

And while he admits prior world championship knowledge from the Dutch track has helped him get up to speed quickly, he also says that he’s learning more and more about the bike and the team every time out.

“When you come to a track you know, it’s easy to know what the bike needs from the first few laps,” he told Bikesport News. “Even though it’s my first time on a Superbike here, I understood the bike pretty quickly and relayed that to the team.

“It’s strange, I had a love-hate relationship with this place on a 600 and some years I hated it and some years I liked it. This morning, just coming to a track that I know from the start helped to get us up to pace really quickly.

“The last few races since Silverstone we’ve changed a few things on the bike which made it more manageable and its’ starting to become my bike. 

“It’s a bit of everything. It’s confidence with the bike, it’s the direction we’ve gone throughout the year and having a circuit that I know.”