Pata Honda’s Jonathan Rea is relatively satisfied after the opening qualifying session of the World Superbike championship at Moscow Raceway in Russia today, after his team used the day to work on a variety of setup issues, including the electronics and gearbox.

The Isle of Man resident finished seventh in this afternoons 45 minute qualifying practice, but the 26-year-old is still half a second behind provisional pole setter Kawasaki’s Tom Sykes, but Rea is confident of improvements to his settings for tomorrow morning’s second qualifying session before the afternoon Superpole sessions to determine final grid positions for both Sunday’s races.

“It’s not been a bad day although we got off to a sluggish start this morning, setting up a base map for the electronics, but the guys worked pretty well to get it in the ball park. We’re there or thereabouts and we didn’t use a lot of tyres today, trying to focus more on what’s happening when the tyre gets old,” said Rea.

“I tried a different front today, which I liked, but I had some positives and some negatives. Tomorrow we need to work on the exit on to the back straight where we’re a little weak so we’re looking at different options. Maybe gearbox ratios will make things a little better there. Otherwise, it’s half a second to the front, but it took us a while to wake up this morning. We’ll all sit down together to discuss options and come back strong in the morning”.