Tommy Bridewell entered last weekend's Knockhill BSB weekend 22 points down on then-championship leader Glenn Irwin, but went home from Scotland with an 11-point lead.

The reigning champion was on strong form from the beginning of the weekend, and took pole position for the first time this year on Saturday. In the one dry race, he converted that pole position to a first victory for Honda, before backing that up with two wet weather podiums in Race 2 and Race 3.

"Honestly I couldn't be happier to come away from this weekend with a first, a third and a second," Bridewell said, reflecting on Knockhill. "We came into this weekend 22 points down, so I’m over the moon. Absolutely delighted."

Bridewell was in touch with eventual Race 3 winner Christian Iddon throughout Race 3, which was cut short by a red flag which came out when Leon Haslam crashed at turn four. "The final race was cut a bit short and the bike was working good, but the conditions were changing lap by lap, it was drying out quite a lot, so it was tough. A really tough race. I just tried to ride clean and maintain the gap to the lead, but also maintain the gap that I had from the chasing pack.

"Credit to the CBR1000RR-R Fireblade SP. It’s really working well now and I feel really good and I’m looking forward to the rest of the season."

There were also positives to take from Knockhill for Andrew Irwin, who retired from the second and third races, but was on the podium for the first time this year in the first race.

"In the dry I qualified in sixth, the first race yesterday I was third," Irwin said, choosing to focus on the positive parts of the weekend. "It probably took me a little bit to get going, but still we fought back. We went back to fourth, the back to second and finished third."

An early crash in Race 2 followed, and then Irwin retired with a technical issue in Race 3. "It was a good start this morning in Race 2," he said. "I was third when I crashed, but it was only in the fifth or sixth corner and I had quite a big crash.

"The at the start of Race 3 I got going okay and I think I was running ninth, eighth or ninth. We had a bit of a problem which stopped us from progressing."

The next BSB round is at Snetterton, but Irwin and Honda have a test to look forward to before that. Irwin said: "We have to look at the positives. I came from a big crash this morning and didn’t let it affect me. I think we were going forward in that race but that's the way it goes, the team have done a great job, thank you to them for rebuilding the bike and I look forward to a week off before we go testing next week."