Australian ace Josh Brookes has said he’s struggled with the performance of his DAO Racing Honda Fireblade for much of qualifying week.

Posting a video update to fans on social media, the 43-year-old two-time British Superbike Champion said: ‘This year the Superbike has been really painful to work with, it's been nervous and unstable and reactive off bumps, and really quite difficult to ride.

‘Just before the final practice on Friday, I said to the mechanics: “Have we got to the point where we just ride the Superstock bike in both the Superstock and the Superbike races?”

‘They were like “No, we’ll 'll persevere a bit longer before we make that sort of decision.”

‘As it turns out, the last run on the Superbike wasn't particularly bad, the bike was a lot much improved on what it had been earlier in the week and we did a 132mph lap and I feel a lot more in control of it.

‘It’s not perfect by any stretch, but it’s something that I can go and race on now.

‘Once you start to make progress in a certain direction, it's never guaranteed, but you get a lot more confidence that we're going in the right direction, and we could nick a little bit more to make the bike improve even further.’

Brookes has been happy with the team’s Superstock Honda. He added: ‘The Superstock has been fairly strong amongst the others.

‘I don't feel like I'm doing anything extraordinary, but we've been really strong amongst the group. Judging by the practice times, we should be in a really strong position for at minimum a podium, but I'm never one to sort of jump to conclusions before it happens.’