Tommy Bridewell admitted that Sunday's WorldSBK races at Magny-Cours 'took everything' from him, after two crashes that both triggered red flags. The first incident in Race 1 left him battling pain throughout his body for the Superpole Race and Race 2.
The crash at Turn 14 in Race 1 resulted in only a lip abrasion, but the soreness was already significant by Sunday morning. Despite that, he managed a solid sixth-place finish in the 10-lap Superpole Race, only to crash again in Race 2 on the penultimate lap.
The Race 1 crash happened as he was trying to carve through the pack from the back of the grid, following a penalty for a yellow flag infringement. Bridewell admitted to being 'greedy' under braking for Turn 15, which cost him control and sent him tumbling at high speed.
“The yellow flag infringement and then putting me last on the grid hurt us, but I’m not going to whine about it, I take it on the chin,” Bridewell said in a video on his Instagram. “It just made it hard to come back through the pack. I knew what pace I had, but I just couldn’t get through as strong as I wanted to. I was trying to be patient, but ultimately I got caught out, I got greedy into that left-hander: I was 100 per cent throttle, snapped the throttle shut, grabbed the brake, and down I went. Hit the deck at 165mph, end over end, hit the air fence – luckily – and was able to go again today.”
After the Superpole Race, Bridewell said he was 'exhausted' and the team encouraged him to pull in if necessary in Race 2. However, he chose to continue despite increasing chatter from his bike. “I just couldn’t bring myself to do it. I just kept digging deeper and deeper. Frustratingly, had a small issue where I had quite a lot of chatter from early on in the race, which was becoming hard to manage, and then with two laps to go it just caught me out into turn three and lost the front,” he explained.
Despite the difficult weekend, Bridewell highlighted the positives, particularly the progress made by the first-year Superbike Advocates team. “I think the progress we’re making and have made in World Superbike this season for a brand new team and me still learning, I think we need to be really proud of what we’ve achieved and we need to just keep building on that. We’ll take the positives from the weekend, I’m all good, beaten and bruised a bit but we’ll regroup, get ready for Cremona in a couple of weeks,” he concluded.
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