Redding bounces back at Assen with two podiums, but ‘we had the pace to win’

Aruba.it Ducati rider Scott Redding brought a seven race WorldSBK podium drought to an end after claiming two feature race second places in Assen. 

In terms of outright pace, Redding was tantalisingly close to race winner Jonathan Rea in both races - especially race two - but was unable to make an impression on the Kawasaki rider even though Redding felt he had the pace to win. 

The former MotoGP rider seems to struggle getting overtakes done quickly as overheating the front tyre comes into play, something Rea doesn’t seem to be impacted by as much. 

So, although Redding was closing in on Rea during the final laps of race two, the win was created by Rea’s early overtakes of Michael Van Der Mark, Redding himself, Alex Lowes, and Michael Rinaldi. 

Rinaldi was in fact the rider Redding got stuck behind, which he alluded to in his post-race debrief. 

Redding said: "I'm happy to end the weekend with another podium. I struggled a lot to find the feeling with the front tyre but in Race 2 we were able to make that small step that allowed me to keep a better pace.

"Maybe if I got the tyre to work four laps before, or maybe if I didn’t get stuck with Michael [Rinaldi] for a few laps, it would’ve been okay. 

"I lost some laps because I didn’t want to force an overtake and start to fight and let the gap grow more because I knew I couldn’t force the front tyre, so I had to try and be a bit clever. 

"That was it. I was quite happy. I was fast all weekend. I knew we had the pace to win. 

"The tyres played a big part in decisions and as per usual, we find the right setup for the last race. It’s always two races too late."