James Rispoli says once he and his Anvil Hire Yamaha squad got the R1 to click into place he could learn much quicker running with the title contenders after pulling off a surprise Q3 place.

The MCE British Superbike rookie had been struggling for single lap pace during the free practice sessions but feels his team's efforts have paid off as he could attack on fresh tyres to find a big chunk of time, while also learning off Leon Haslam in Q2.

"I'm stoked, it is crazy," Rispoli said. "We knew we could do the job but it has been a hard week with a new bike and new team plus we keep getting new parts. On the timesheets we couldn't really show anything because at the end of every session there was a little something but we knew we had the potential.

"The thing that made it click was going out with the fast guys and really being able to use my tyres. There was so much work trying to get everything right and I finally went out with Haslam and I got a pretty good tow off him. He showed me a lot. It wasn't too crazy behind him and I learnt a lot. On the superbike I need the laps to understand it."

The young American rider produced his best lap in Q2, after a small change on his set-up failed to produce further gains in Q3, but says to make it through to the final session in qualifying on his maiden BSB outing and put himself eighth on the grid has given his team a huge confidence boost.

"When 2m 06.3s came up on the dash [in Q2] it was crazy as I'd only done a 2m 08.5s before so I'd gone through so much time," he explained. "To get into Q3 is an accomplishment in itself. We went into the final session with a small change which didn't really help us and we ended up eighth but everybody is pumped."