Oulton Park’s opening Bennetts British Superbike Championship round was a case of close but no cigar for Christian Iddon as the VisionTrack Ducati rider was forced to settle for second in all three races.

It made it six races in a row at the venue where he’s finished in the runner-up spot and it was made even more tough to swallow as both of Sunday’s races saw him lead from the very first lap only to see Jason O’Halloran nose ahead on the final lap each time.

However, it was clear the Tyneside-based rider was riding in a confident manner and is more than ready to challenge for the title this season, exactly what he’ll be expecting in his second year with the team and on the Panigale.

“I think I’m going to lobby Stuart Higgs to see if we can get extra points for the most laps led in a race,” he joked afterwards. “It’s hard to take when you lead for that long and get overtaken on the final lap and although three second place finishes is obviously a great start, three wins would have been better.”

“Jason had something more than us in certain parts of the circuit though and he had plenty of opportunity to weigh things up by sitting behind me for so long. I was half expecting him to come by, especially in the last race but I felt confident leading.”

“I tried to up the pace in the final race but lost the front at turn one and wasn’t able to get back at Jason when he came through at Island Bend. We leave Oulton in a good place though and we can take away a lot of positives from the weekend.”