Friday pacesetter Scott Redding has revealed he’s already a fan of Knockhill after a strong debut at the short Scottish track.

After months of speculation as to how the former MotoGP man would fare as the championship made its annual trek across the border, Redding silenced the critics this afternoon as he clocked a 47.667s lap to top the timesheets ahead of Danny Buchan and his own team-mate Josh Brookes.

“I do like the track, it’s a bit of a short lap but it’s quite entertaining, it’s very technical to learn,” the Be Wiser Ducati rider told Bikesport News. “I feel quite comfortable just trying to improve.

“Sometimes you get stuck into a lap time where it’s hard to go faster because it’s such a short lap, but this has been great.

“The weather’s been amazing which has obviously helped me. Stuff that I’ve learned from Oulton Park has helped here too.

“I’ve come here and it’s not second nature, but I know what the bike’s going to do when I go up over the crest and when it shakes.”

While he refuses to say whether or not he thinks he can win on Sunday, Redding is definitely feeling a lot more confident than he did before the weekend began.

“A win will be difficult, but like I said at Brands, if you’re fighting for a podium you can fight for a win. I was fast over one lap there but I just used up too much energy.

“I’m taking what I can from there and I’m trying to learn from that now to try and be competitive for Sunday. We’re in the ballpark, which is good, and we’ll do our best to see if we can fight for a podium this weekend.”