Setup change costs Scott Redding at Donington BSB: “It was the wrong way to go”

Scott Redding says a mistake in bike setup cost him a shot at the podium in Race 1 at the Donington BSB.

Redding had been strong at Donington back in May, finishing second in the Sunday races and winning Race 1 when it rained towards the end.

But the first race of round 10 saw him four seconds further back of race winner and BSB points leader Kyle Ryde and off the podium in fourth.

Rear grip was the problem for Redding, which surprised him having felt strong during practice.

“The race was okay, I just was struggling a bit with rear grip, which was weird because I’ve been kind of quite strong all weekend and then it just didn’t materialise in the race,” Scott Redding told Crash.net after Race 1 at Donington.

“Nothing to say about it. Just tried to do the best I could, tried to have a bit of a dig at the end of the race, but there was just nothing more to come from the tyre, unfortunately.”

Redding made a change for Race 1, going back to what he ran at Donington in the second round in May, but he thinks lower track grip prevented that setup from working.

“The track grip is quite different,” he said. “I changed the bike for the race, I went back to what I had last time [round two] and it was probably a negative thing to do. 

“I felt better with that bike, but I think the track grip was different. The gap is the same, but I couldn’t really push to perform, so that’s kind of why I was stuck where I was at.”

Having missed the podium in Race 1, Redding wants to go back to the setup he was using before Race 1 for Sunday’s two races.

“Probably going to go back to the setting we used all weekend, actually, and go back to what we worked on, and just see if that helps,” he said.

“I just feel like I didn’t have the same performance as I had in practice, and I was also like 0.3 seconds a lap slower than I was in practice when I did longer runs. 

“It was my idea to change, I thought it would help, but actually it was the wrong way to go.”