Honda British Superbike star Jason O'Halloran popped his WorldSBK cherry at Imola this afternoon as he stands-in for the injured Leon Camier in the Red Bull-backed squad.

The Australian took the reigns of Camier's Fireblade after he called time on his efforts in free practice two, acknowledging he was not yet recovered enough for two races in the Adriatic heat.

O'Halloran, who was on the BSB podium at Oulton last weekend, has only done a trackday on a 600 nine years ago at Imola, has never ridden with full Marelli electronics and the Pirelli tyres are also different, so it really is a deep-end job.

"It's really tough starting in FP3 because the track is new, the bike is new, the team is new, everything is new. You're already starting behind and I was also two more session behind so realistically, the expectations are different now to what they would have been this morning," O'Halloran told bikesportnews.com.

"OK, we are down the bottom of the sheets, but I've drawn confidence from it because the laptime was good from an old tyre. I didn't change it from the one Leon used in FP2 and I didn't change the bike. I just tried to learn where I was going and got faster in chunks.

"We will start with fresh rubber in the morning and we should take another chunk again. Then it will get harder from then. There's another big step to come comfortably, then it will get tough as we will run out of time.

"There's 20 minutes in the morning and then qualifying, then I have to try and race. If I can come away from this weekend with my best laps at the end of race two, then I will have done a decent job. I have to adjust and improve every time I ride."