Podium man Peter Hickman has revealed he will be gunning for third in the championship in a fortnight as the Bennetts British Superbike series comes to a close at Brands Hatch.

And after leading over half the laps of today’s second race in the Netherlands and bagging his third podium of the season behind double winner Leon Haslam and Josh Brookes, the Smith’s Racing BMW rider admitted he and his team have finally ironed out lingering bike issues.

Hickman made a strong start from pole position in today’s second scrap and looked on for a potential first win of the season, but former champ Brookes took over at the front late on before Haslam eclipsed them both to take victory.

But after days of graft for his crew after what he admitted was a difficult round in Cheshire last time out, the Lincolnshireman feels he and the lone BMW squad in the Showdown have finally hit their stride.

And although he could only just hang on towards the end of the final race, Hickman wants to be up ahead of Brookes and Glenn Irwin in the standings by season’s end.

“Oulton was a really tough round for us and we just couldn’t figure out what was going on with the bike,” he said. “But the team’s worked hard over the last week and a half with lots of hours on the dyno trying to figure out what it is.

“They managed to fix it for this weekend and the bike’s not missed a beat. All the hard graft has paid off. We’ve been fast right from the start and found a good setting straight away.

“The [race two] start was bang on and I just thought I’d get my head down. I managed to break the pack a bit, I think I was about a second in front. We were using the SC0 soft tyre and we need to keep the temperature in it but when the safety car came out it dropped a bit.

“When Leon came past I wasn’t struggling to hang on, but I was hanging on and that’s it. I realised I had a bit of a gap behind and I tried really hard in the last lap to close it just a bit but I lost the front and the rear going into turn nine.

“I’m happy enough to be on the podium and almost closing on the championship a little bit more. Third in the championship is what we’re aiming for.”