Ekerold: I would hope we can win - EXCLUSIVE.

Reve Ekerold Honda team principal, Gary Ekerold, has warned that questions will have to be asked if the team doesn't start repeating its Donington Park top five.

Former Foggy Petronas rider Craig Jones returned to the reigning British Supersport championship winning team for its graduation to World Supersport this season and, after a 12th and 14th in the first two flyaway rounds, stormed from 19th to fourth in his home race at Donington Park on April 1.

Ekerold had expected to build on that brilliant performance last weekend at Valencia, but 18th in qualifying and tenth in the race marked a frustrating reversal of form which he doesn't expect to be repeated.

"It was a good ride but we're all a bit disappointed after finishing fourth at Donington Park two weeks ago. The bar and expectation levels have been raised," Ekerold told Crash.net Radio. "Look, it's our first season in World Supersport, we're lying ninth in the championship - we're only four points off fifth - we've had consistent results at every race meeting... there are lots and lots of positives to take out of what we've been doing, but the reality is, at the end of the day, tenth place is just not good enough.

"We are trying to demonstrate that we are a team that can compete at international level. It's imperative that we start getting some good consistent results, by which I mean a top five finish every weekend. On a good weekend I would hope we can be on the podium and on a great weekend I would hope we can win races. Sofuoglu and Charpentier and obviously the two Yamaha boys are very fast but not unbeatable, that is for sure."

One of the advantages enjoyed by the likes of Hannspree Ten Kate Honda and the Yamaha World Supersport Team is the amount of time they've had to develop their 2007 machines relative to the newcomers.

"That is probably the most difficult part we've experienced," admitted Ekerold. "The guys from the world championship last year received their bikes in November last year and we received ours in the late part of February. So we are running behind on development compared with them. But, having said that, we can't let that be an excuse; we just have to catch-up, sort it out and go racing.

"I genuinely feel we have the package to get some good results now. Donington was the first show but we didn't get too ahead of ourselves because we expected to do well at Donington; we've got a lot of data from Donington, Jonesy obviously goes well there and the other teams hadn't ridden there for a long time. We put all of those things into perspective with our fourth place.

"Having said that, to come from 19th to fourth is a fantastic ride. Still, we should be finishing in the top five at every race and if we don't then we've got some answering to do," he warned.

The next chance for Ekerold's team to prove itself will be at the famous Assen circuit on April 29.

"The nature of Assen should suit our package a little bit more," he said. "It's also a bit of a riders' circuit, so Jonesy can go and show what he can do..."