In the same blustery winds which held back the Supersport competitors, the Superbike riders experienced similar problems, with some top names falling as they strove to improve their times.

Vermeulen, the reigning World Supersport Champion, was pleased with his first day in a whole new class of racing, even if he was frustrated by the weather.

"The wind was the worst thing for me," said Chris. "On the 600 you can shift your weight over the front to stop the front wheel leaving the ground but on the Superbike it sometimes comes up no matter what. We did fit one qualifying tyre but as I'm not used to it yet I didn't get any improvement in lap time. The main thing is that we improved the bike as time went on, even if we do not have quick-shifter fitted to it yet. I was hoping for a top five finish and I think we were top five if the qualifiers were discounted. It's important to keep moving forward at this stage, it's really the most important thing."

For the two-time World Supersport championship team, the new CBR1000RR Superbike is the latest in a long line of challenges to be met head on. Team Manager Ronald Ten Kate declared himself happy with stage one of the weekend's work. "I think the time we did was really good because it was done on race tyres, not qualifiers," said Ronald. "We did run a qualifying tyre at one stage but Chris is new to this and did not see the benefit in lap times. We were eighth fastest but if you look at the times done on race tyres, Chris went fifth fastest. We are happy with that at this early stage. Right now we have to take things step-by-step."