'I don’t want to be third place all season' Max Cook sets out key BSB target

Max Cook admits that while he was pleased with three podiums at the Brands Hatch BSB he would like to go a couple of steps better before the end of the season.

Brands Hatch was Cook’s second round of 2026 that saw him take three podiums from three races after Donington, his total for the season now at seven.

But the Bimota rider remains winless in BSB, and he’s clearly keen to put that right before the end of the year with six rounds still to come.

“I thought perhaps I was going to have the perfect bike for this weekend, but it turns out that they just had that little edge,” Cook told Crash.net after Race 3 at Brands Hatch.

“Obviously, my bike was still amazing, but they still had that little one-up on me. 

“Obviously, third place is mega, but I don’t want to keep being a third place man for all season, I want to keep going, but we’ll have to see.”

In general, though, Cook was happy with his weekend, being clearly the third-best, ahead of the likes of Leon Haslam and Bradley Ray who were in the group behind.

“Really pleased overall, I think,” he said.

“I think I just didn’t quite have the pace to go with Kyle [Ryde] and Scott [Redding], but I hung in there for as many laps as what I could’ve done. Every lap was like a qualifying lap and I just managed to ride as perfectly as what I could. 

“I was quite pleased with how I rode [on Sunday], I didn’t really make any mistakes.

“But towards the end I did have a few little twitches on the rear tyre when it started to drop off a little bit and that was just kind of the downfall, really, that’s what I just didn’t have underneath me to take it to Kyle and Scott. But, overall, pretty pleased with this weekend.”

Race 3 in particular was a strong race from Cook, sticking close to the front two for the majority of the race before dropping off in the closing laps.

“[I] just managed to do as many 1m24s as what I could, and that was enough to [make] another gap again to fourth, which was good,” said Cook. “That’s what I was going for, really.

“There was a moment where I was right on the back of Kyle and I was like ‘I could really do this’, and then I saw Kyle and Scott just starting to battle a bit and I thought ‘This could really help me out’. 

“The safety car was just one of them; because it was quite a long one the tyre dropped quite a lot the temperature and pressure, so it was good that I was able to get it back and I think I continued my momentum and such and I was able to still do 1m24s and stuff. 

“But overall I’m pleased with that – I know they were a bit further up the road, but it was good.”