The key Honda BSB improvement verified at Oulton Park

After signs of progress in the last few rounds, Ryan Vickers again proved the advances Honda has made compared to the start of the season at the Oulton Park BSB.

Vickers was able to finish in the top-six in all three races, including fourths in both Sunday races.

The Race 3 result was especially surprising for Vickers, who had been ready to accept a sixth place before catching Max Cook and Leon Haslam in the closing stages.

“I honestly thought the race was done and I was going to finish sixth; I had a big gap in front of me, I had a big gap behind me,” Ryan Vickers told Crash.net after BSB Race 3 at Oulton Park.

“I just kind of settled into a rhythm. Maybe, yes, I could’ve had a couple more tenths, but they were three- or four-tenths [better] and I wasn’t going to catch them. 

“So, I kind of settled into a rhythm so I was nice and safe, and I just saw one lap they came back towards me and I thought ‘Right, I’m going to have a final push now and just see if I can bridge the gap’. 

“I started pushing really hard and they were really coming back to me, and I was like ‘Wow, they must be struggling’. 

“I caught them so fast, and I thought ‘I’ve got to pass them both in one lap’, because I know what Haslam’s like: if he gets a sniff that someone’s going to overtake he’ll defend it would be really hard. 

“So, I did Max [Cook] into Knickerbrook, I did Leon into the last corner on the same lap, and then I was like ‘Right, I’ve got three laps, just give everything’.”

The pace that followed was strong from Vickers, dipping into the 1m33s when almost everyone else in the top-six bar the leading two Ducatis were in the 1m34s, and it was pace that he felt would’ve not been achievable at the start of the season, highlighting a key improvement in late race pace for himself and Honda.

“Three laps for my life, did a 1m33.9s with three laps to go, super-fast, and then 1m34.0s for the rest,” he continued.

“So, super-happy with the lap times at the end of the race, it’s so strong. 

“We wouldn’t have been able to do that before, it’s nice to have a little bit in the tank to push at the end.”

Oulton Park is also the first track to have been visited twice by BSB in 2026, which means there was a direct comparison to the race three months ago at round one.

“It’s nice to actually have a comparison because we’ve come back to the same circuit twice now,” Vickers explained.

“I knew that there was progression in the bike, we had better results at Knockhill and Snetterton, but we hadn’t confirmed it at any track that we’ve been back to. So, it’s good to come back here. 

“We’ve managed to get rid of some of the big problems that we’ve had with the vibration; we were able to fine-tune the bike, we’ve made the bike again better. So, really happy with the progress made.”

The progress with the bike was even more substantial than Vickers was expecting.

“I really didn’t think it was possible to come away with a sixth and two fourths; I thought I’d be around sixth and that would maybe be the maximum, but to get two fourths and to beat people like Haslam that were on the podium three times at the start of the year, and on the Ducati, and beat Max is really strong,” he explained.

“So, proud of that, proud of the team – we’ve done a lot of work. We’ve just got to keep it up, we can’t drop our heads, we’ve just got to use this as motivation and I’m sure we’ll be on the podium many times this year, we’ve just got to keep working hard.”