British Superbike Championship leader Tommy Bridewell endured a weekend to forget after taking home just five points from the three races to see his points advantage over BeerMonster Ducati team-mate Glenn Irwin whittled down.

Never a happy hunting ground for the Wiltshire rider, the high-speed Hampshire circuit is the only one on the current BSB calendar where he’s never finished on the rostrum, a statistic that never looked like changing at the weekend as all three Ducati V4R riders struggled for grip and form.

Indeed, though Bridewell had reservations coming into the weekend, he didn't expect the results - two 14ths and a 15th - to be so bad.

“We all had to run the harder SCD tyre this weekend and it hurt us more than we expected, certainly more than our rivals, and we were unable to get any form of mechanical grip,” he explained.

“We made big changes throughout the weekend, but the feeling has remained the same, so it’s understandably been frustrating, and I didn’t think it would be this tough. That’s no excuse for a poor performance though; I should be better, I expect to be better, and I need to be better.”

Bridewell’s fortunes never changed from the Sprint race to Sunday’s longer races nor did his track position.

He was somewhat fortunate to score a point for 15^thin the final race too, only being promoted into the final points-scoring position due to the last lap crash between Danny Kent and Jack Kennedy.

Though he fared little better, team-mate Irwin did at least cut Bridewell’s lead by eight points to 26.5, but a hat-trick of wins for Jason O'Halloran has propelled him into contention, just 50 points adrift now from a starting point of 99.

However, Bridewell knows the final four rounds are at circuits he goes well having already won at two of them, Oulton Park and Brands Hatch, earlier this season.

“The results at Thruxton have left me slightly lost for words to be honest, and these days make the good ones even sweeter! None of us expected this and as a team we’ve been weak this weekend, but we win as a team and lose as a team, so we’ll take it on the chin and move on.”

“If Glenn had been winning, I’d have been scratching my head, but he was only one or two places ahead of me with the other Ducati rider in the same ballpark so it’s clear the track just doesn’t suit us.

"I’ve lost a few points to Glenn whilst Jason has been phenomenal but the next four circuits are all good for us, so we’ll come out swinging and get back to winning ways.”