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Jamie Klein

Redding doubted he would ever be so competitive on BMW

After taking a major step forwards in performance at Donington Park last month, Redding continued his strong recent form aboard the factory BMW M1000RR at Most, fighting in the leading group during Saturday's opening race and beating Jonathan Rea to the final step on the rostrum.

The going was tougher on Sunday as a poor start relegated him to eighth in the Superpole race, before finishing fourth in the final race as 'best of the rest' behind the established top three of Toprak Razgatlioglu, Alvaro Bautista and Rea.

Although Redding narrowly missed out on beating his Donington points haul at Most, it still marks a huge contrast to his first race weekend as a BMW rider at Aragon in April, where he managed just a single point.

The ex-MotoGP racer said that his current performances are in line with what he had imagined mid-season, but admitted he didn't imagine such a speedy recovery from his dismal start to the year.

"I doubted it for sure," said Redding. "I doubted it would ever come to this point. Like I said at Donington, it was sink or swim - either I ride it and that’s it, or we dig our heels in and try and make the package better.

"We made this step and now I think we are where we should be. I said at the beginning of the year [I would be happy] if we can fight for a couple of podiums by mid-season, and then by the end of the season be more consistent.

"Somehow we are on track for that, we just need to make a few more changes and then I think we can fight with them even more."

 

Redding's form at Donington was boosted by the arrival of a new Kalex-built swingarm, which was also installed on Loris Baz's satellite Bonovo M1000RR.

But the British rider reiterated that the new piece has only part of the equation that has allowed him to become a regular top-five runner - highlighting the gulf in performance between he and Baz, who failed to crack the top 10 at Most.

"I think I just clicked a little bit with the bike, and with the swingarm, the set-up, it’s all these things together," Redding said. "I have confidence now, I know the bike can do it, I know I can do it.

"I feel in control, whereas before I felt on the limit, like I’m gonna f***ing crash everywhere, but I was still two seconds off. Now I feel like the bike is talking to me and I can respond and act, and I can ride how I want to ride.

"That’s the biggest thing, confidence. It gives you half a tenth in every corner."

Redding will return to action in a test at Barcelona during the summer break before the WSBK grid recovenes in September at Magny-Cours to kick off the second half of the season.

"The big [issue] we had, we got rid of, so now we’re looking for smaller things, and we know where we need to look," he said. "It’s just achieving it.

"I would like to get more turning from the bike, that’s the main thing I’ll be looking for. At least we know we need to fix this area, and if we get this we’ll make the step to close the gap." 

 
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