A solid start for Honda Racing at Donington Park
Donington Park GPHonda Racing has enjoyed a solid start to Round 8 of the 2025 Bennetts British Superbike Championship (BSB), at Donington Park, with hopes of more to come.
This weekend marks the second and final competitive visit to Donington for both series, with lap speeds increasing over their previous visit to the Leicestershire venue in May. Adding to the unique atmosphere, a four-race schedule has to be undertaken by the BSB riders in order to complete all points-scoring races before the final three-round Showdown for the championship.
Tommy Bridewell and Andrew Irwin spent the BSB’s first two Free Practice sessions on Friday honing their Honda Fireblades to the cool, dry conditions. Then, after the 10-minute FP3 on Saturday morning, they rode out to lay down a marker in Qualifying.
Irwin ended the session in fifth place on the grid, while Bridewell could not improve on 12th, despite the margin between the two Hondas being just 0.359 seconds.
Starting from the second and fourth rows of the grid respectively, the two Honda riders got away cleanly at the start. With Irwin getting straight into the podium battle, ultimately finishing in fifth place. Bridewell’s early gains were consolidated before he then worked his way through the field to seventh place before the race was stopped early for a red flag incident.
“The gap between the qualifying times is so tiny, particularly between the second row to the fourth row, that it’s a frustration in itself. It’s annoying to be that close and yet then get stuck behind people at the start of the race. I’m still struggling to get the bike where I feel I need it to be as a rider, and that’s obviously what you can see at the moment with me starting on the fourth row. I got a good start but I think that I maybe tried to take a bit too much too fast and so then I had to sit back and take a more calculated approach and just work my way through. It’s frustrating that we could have been on the podium, I think we had the pace, but I just had to take the passing opportunities when they came and not force it. On the plus side, my lap times weren’t bad and I’ll be starting further forward tomorrow. Hopefully we'll find a bit more in the bike, and maybe having three races can help us.”
“The gap between the qualifying times is so tiny, particularly between the second row to the fourth row, that it’s a frustration in itself. It’s annoying to be that close and yet then get stuck behind people at the start of the race. I’m still struggling to get the bike where I feel I need it to be as a rider, and that’s obviously what you can see at the moment with me starting on the fourth row. I got a good start but I think that I maybe tried to take a bit too much too fast and so then I had to sit back and take a more calculated approach and just work my way through. It’s frustrating that we could have been on the podium, I think we had the pace, but I just had to take the passing opportunities when they came and not force it. On the plus side, my lap times weren’t bad and I’ll be starting further forward tomorrow. Hopefully we'll find a bit more in the bike, and maybe having three races can help us.”
“It’s been a good start to the weekend. In Practice and Qualifying, I think we were able to work things through pretty methodically. It’s a solid start but I think we can continue to take steps forward in the three races on Sunday. We were in the fight for the podium early on today, and I think we can be there throughout the race tomorrow. We’ll be working on one or two things between now and the next race and will hope to build from where we are now.”
“It’s been a good start to the weekend. In Practice and Qualifying, I think we were able to work things through pretty methodically. It’s a solid start but I think we can continue to take steps forward in the three races on Sunday. We were in the fight for the podium early on today, and I think we can be there throughout the race tomorrow. We’ll be working on one or two things between now and the next race and will hope to build from where we are now.”