Foggy PETRONAS Racing riders Steve Martin and Craig Jones face an uphill battle in tomorrow’s eighth round races of the Superbike World Championship races after a troublesome day’s qualifying at Brands Hatch.

Steve was denied a Superpole position in the dying stages of the morning session when Frankie Chili nudged him out of the top 16 by less than a tenth of a second, although he was one of the few riders to show a marked improvement on their Friday times.

Craig’s qualifying push was also hampered by technical issues, a problematic gearbox reducing his track time and he will start from 24th on a grid headed by championship leader Troy Bayliss.

Craig said: “I have had problems with the gearbox today and had to qualify on my number two bike, which I wasn’t as comfortable with. I was able to get back on that number one bike in free practice and immediately took quite a bit of time off, but wasn’t really able to get into a rhythm. The problems have made things doubly difficult but I am hoping that circuit knowledge will stand me in good stead for tomorrow. And if we can make some improvements for morning warm-up I am sure I will be able to put some decent race times together.”

Steve said: “It has been a frustrating weekend as we have been up against it with reliability. I was disappointed not to make Superpole but I know that I gave it everything I had. In the afternoon I wanted to do 15 laps on one tyre, 10 on another and a couple on the hardest tyre. But my bike had an engine problem on the out-lap of the free practice session and I was forced to use the second bike, which has been slower all weekend. Tomorrow is now going to be a big gamble on tyres, although I have been able to put some consistent laps together on race tyres when things were going okay. But tomorrow is another day and it will be giving 110 per cent as ever.”