TOMMY Bridewell fought off bike issues to finish inside the top seven in the latest round of the MCE Insurance British Superbike Championship standings at Knockhill.

The Etchilhampton rider had overcome a tenth place qualifying start to move up the order before a brake issue caused him to drop back down the order to fight for sixth place.

In race two Bridewell was fighting to carve his way through the field when the issue reoccurred but rode a mature race to finish seventh, remaining inside the top six in the standings.

Bridewell's Milwaukee Yamaha team moved up to second in the standings as his Australian teammate Josh Brookes scored a pair of fourth places.

Bridewell said: “This weekend the team have done an amazing job. We obviously had a problem in free practice three which set us back, but to a degree it didn’t as I qualified seventh.

"We have had a good weekend and I can’t fault the team, but unfortunately in the races all of a sudden we had a brake issue which basically cost me a couple of podiums today.

"I am a bit disappointed because if you look at my lap times and my overall race pace I know for a fact that we would have been fighting for the podium. I have to look at the positives and I think we have shown good form.

"The result have not been what we wanted by far, but we managed to salvage results which is why we have to look at it positively.”

Team co-ordinator Mick Shanley said: “I think that Tommy had a couple of issues in the races, but overall he has had quite a strong weekend after everything that happened for him in practice and in qualifying. I think that the whole team has worked really well together during a tough weekend and we have now got to focus on moving forward at Brands Hatch.”

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