A dramatic setup step taken by Honda's Jonathan Rea for World Superbike Superpole at Silverstone today didn't garner the results required by the young Irishman, who is  struggling with the translation back to his Fireblade from the bike on which he won the Suzuka Eight-Hours last Saturday.

Rea has been off the pace all weekend and didn't make it through to the final part of qualifying today. He says that changes made to the bike aren't helping him to find the confidence to push hard so he starts tomorrow's two races from tenth place.

"I’m still frustrated today because, although we improved the bike from yesterday with a dramatic step, it’s still not in the direction I need. What’s more frustrating is that we’re making changes to the bike but it’s not affecting the area that I’m having problems with," said Rea.

"I need to build confidence again after being off the bike and having to re-learn it, but until we can get the bike to inspire a bit of that confidence it feels like I’m riding around and banging my head against the wall. One thing for sure is that the guys around me are smart people, and the bike’s been amazing before, like two or three races ago.

"It seems like the settings are pretty similar but there’s something wrong. If we can get something like we had back then, there’s no reason why we can’t ride at the front again. It’ll be another late night thinking about a change we can make for warm-up but the good thing about Silverstone is that we only need to find a little change because it’s such a long lap around here. The guys are doing their best, I’m doing my best, but this position is not a reflection of where we should be."