Scott Redding dominated the opening British Superbike Championship race at Assen to claim his first victory since July.
Redding last stood on the top step in Race Three at Brands Hatch and has endured some difficult rounds at Thruxton and Cadwell Park in the last few weeks.
However, Redding was naturally the favourite heading into this weekend due to his vast amount of experience at the Dutch circuit in MotoGP and WorldSBK .
The Hager PBM Ducati rider took the lead away from Ryan Vickers on the opening lap and pulled away from the field. Redding was left unchallenged and over 3.5s clear at one stage. Redding crossed the line with an advantage of 2.143s to celebrate his fifth victory of the 2026 season.
However, with Kyle Ryde battling his way through from a difficult start to finish second, Redding has only moved three points closer to the reigning champion. Redding is 68 points adrift with eight races remaining.
Ryde now has 24 podiums from 25 races this year and has extended his race-finishing streak to 85.
Ryde was made to work hard for his second place by Leon Haslam, with the pair engaging in an entertaining, race-long duel. Haslam, who started the race from pole , had to settle for third.
Vickers finished fourth after appearing to suffer with some kind of tyre issue with his Honda during the race, whilst Bradley Ray battled through from 15 th in the opening stages to complete the top five.
Rory Skinner was sixth for Cheshire Mouldings Yamaha, with Ilya Mikhalchik securing his best result of the season so far in seventh. Max Cook, Danny Kent and Jason O’Halloran completed the top 10.
Glenn Irwin and Lee Jackson finished 11 th and 12 th respectfully ahead of Storm Stacey, Josh Brookes and Rhys Irwin.
Joe Talbot crashed out at turn seven on lap four, with the bike suffering severe damage. Christian Iddon went down at the final chicane on the same lap.
Andrew Irwin returned to pit-lane at the end of lap five and retired from the race. Richard Kerr and Luke Hedger both also failed to finish the race.
Sunday’s BSB races at Assen are due to take place at Midday and 15:00 (UK Time).
Sports Reporter - Motorcycle racing enthusiast Josh joined the MCN team in 2019. He studied Sports Journalism at the University of Sunderland, leaving with a 2:1 and a Gold Standard Diploma in Journalism from the National Council for the Training of Journalists (NCTJ). Introduced to the world of motorcycle racing by his dad as a youngster, Josh became a fan of MotoGP, WorldSBK and BSB. Like many, Josh became a huge Valentino Rossi supporter…little did he know that years later he would ask a question or two to the man himself.
Sports Reporter and fan of all things motorsport