Christian Iddon finds good pace in Silverstone tests
Hayfield’s Christian Iddon got his 2021 Bennetts British Superbike Championship up and running in style when the first official test of the season took place at the Silverstone National circuit.
The VisionTrack Ducati rider, who finished third in last year’s championship, has remained with Paul Bird’s Lake District-based squad for a second successive season aboard the factory-supported VisionTrack Ducati Panigale V4Rs, alongside reigning champion Josh Brookes.
The pair were in action against the full field of competitors who will contest this year’s 11-round series.
Cool and occasionally damp conditions were the order of the day for Wednesday’s four sessions and Iddon finished third fastest, less than a tenth of a second behind his teammate.
Thursday was once again very cold although the rain held off as the times from the opening day plummeted.
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Iddon consistently lowered his times in the opening three sessions whilst Brookes improved in the day’s second session to record his fastest lap of the test.
However, Aussie Brookes crashed out of the final session and sustained a finger injury which meant a trip to hospital for further investigation.
Iddon said: “I’m really happy with the way the test has gone, everything is good.
"Silverstone is unique as everyone ends up with very similar lap times, it’s just one of those tracks.
"My aim over the two days was to experiment with a few ideas and to try some stuff we didn’t get round to trying last year, mainly to do with tyre life and some other settings.
"We achieved what we needed and in the last session, I just did a race run rather than chasing a lap time.
"It was unfortunate for Josh to crash and hope his finger injury is not too serious.”
John Mowatt, team co-ordinator, said: “We were happy enough with our progress yesterday and after a good start, today didn’t go so well.
"It meant that Josh ended the combined times in 12th place with Christian in ninth but despite the track not suiting our bike, valuable data was gained for when the series visits later in the year.
"Christian made good progress throughout the test.”
The opening round of the Bennetts British Superbike Championship takes place over the weekend of 25/27 June at Oulton Park in Cheshire.