Thruxton proves tough going for Hayfield racer Christian Iddon on Ducati ‘bogey’ track

Thruxton is typically known to be difficult for the Ducati bikes which was exaggerated by a harder tyre than normal being utilised by Pirelli in order to cope with the high demands of the circuit.

Despite that, Iddon and the team made progress throughout practice but were only able to qualify in a lowly 17th on the grid.

In the sprint race, Iddon was able to move forwards slowly and took a points finish with 13th at the flag.

Also, importantly, his tyre degradation was less than many of his competitors which boded well for Sunday's two feature length races.

In both of those Iddon showed fantastic speed throughout and was as fast as the leaders for the majority.

But with the start position always being the issue it was a case of damage limitation and salvaging as many points as possible.

In doing so, Iddon was able to bring his bike home in ninth and 10th respectively.

Despite the difficult weekend, Iddon was top Ducati in all three races which was testament to the hard work from his team to make the most from the package and importantly, the gap to the top of the championship chase was reduced.

“It's really difficult to know what to say and how to feel about this weekend,” he said.

“I know this isn't an easy track for our bike but I genuinely feel that if everything went our way then we could have potentially scored podiums. The poor qualifying performance really hurt us but the race pace was actually really good.

"It's a very bittersweet feeling I have as I can only think about what could have been.

“Quite importantly, despite having a difficult weekend, we are closer to the head of the championship so we have to keep focused on our goals and the remaining four rounds.”

Jason O'Halloran eclipsed triple champion Niall Mackenzie to become Yamaha’s most successful race winner in Bennetts British Superbike Championship history with a treble race win. The next round is at Cadwell Park on 26th-28th August.