The reigning British Superbike champion was impressive through🍸out practice before delivering a sensational lap in Superpole.

But the Brit admitted he out-qualified his true pace which wa𒁃s one of the reasons for him sliding down to 15th, as were issues with h🅷is R1.

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A gear shifter resulted in another drop down the field in the Superpole Race, however, Ray delivered in Race 2 by finishing ahead race winners Loris Baz and Scot൲t Redding. 

"It was unbelievable," said Ray when talking to WorldSBK.com. "Obviously it was my first time here at Imola but it didn’t take me too long to get used to the track whic💯h was nice. 

"I’ve really strong all weekend but, honestly, the racing has be🎶en the most difficult part for me this yea🎀r. 

"I hadn’t been qualifying so well, so the races were difficult to try and make steps forward. I prob🥃ably out-qualified my pace that I had throughout the ra😼ce and that’s why I dropped back. 

"We had a few issues in Saturday’s race that hindꦜered me from going forwards. Also, this morning in the Superpole Race we had a problem with the gear shifter. 

"It was nice to put that to bed in Race 2 this afternoon and I knew that I had to dig in💛 during the first few laps." 

After coming under p꧟ressure from Baz, Ray instead found good pace during the closing laps in order to break away from the BMW rider, who instead came under threat from Redding.

Describing what it was like to be hunted down for several laps, Ray added: "I had plus three on my board in the la🐬st few laps, so I jus🀅t hit my markers. 

"I wasn’t very strong in the first sect🐻or but I knew that I was quite strong in the rest of ꩲthe lap. 

"I just had to get p♛ast that and I knew that I could hold𒈔 them off to the line."