Shane Byrne insists his 2011 MCE British Superbike Championship dreams are not over, despite falling 44 points behind John Hopkins in the standings with only three races remaining.

The HM Plant Honda rider, who led the standings before the points were equalised ahead of the three-round showdown, has failed to make it onto the podium in the last four races, results that have put him out of touch with Hopkins and Hill.

Even so, Byrne was pleased with his pair of fifth place finishes at Silverstone, having struggled with set-up problems to qualify down in 13th position.

“We certainly didn’t come to Silverstone to score two fifth places but if someone would have offered me that on Friday or even Saturday afternoon I would have snapped their arm off for it. It was a learning experience for me in the first race after we made some radical changes; it was just annoying that we found the pace at that point in the weekend despite the boys working so hard in the garage to turn things around.

“I was trying to get everything perfect in race two after leading for a few laps and then John (Hopkins) came past me in the slipstream down the straight and that was it. Maybe I could have had an answer for third or fourth on the last lap, but from 13th we turned it around well in the races.

With one round and three races remaining at Brands Hatch, Byrne acknowledges that he is on the ‘back foot’, but insists he isn’t out of the fight as yet.

“We are on the back foot coming into the final round at Brands Hatch but the championship is still far from over.”