After an up and down campaign last year, Tommy Bridewell was back to his best at Oulton Park with the Oxford Racing Ducati rider opening his 2021 Bennetts British Superbike campaign with a brace of thirds.

It could have been even better for the Wiltshire rider had he not been forced to retire from Sunday’s opener when the chain came adrift after a coming together with Tarran Mackenzie.

Crucially though, Bridewell looked fast all weekend, whether it was his single lap or full race pace and the final race of the weekend showed him at his best as he tore through the field from a lowly grid position.

“I like to make it hard for myself, don’t I?” he said afterwards. “After the second race retirement, I was a long way back on the grid for the final race and I had to use a lot of the tyre to come from so far back. I reckon I used two laps worth of tyre just to bring myself to the back of the leading pack.

“Both Jason and Christian rode phenomenal races, like they did on Saturday and they never put a wheel wrong, so fair play to them. It’s a strong start to our season though so we need to build on this at the next round and keep the momentum going.”