2-2 for Honda Racing UK at Donington Park

Glenn Irwin

Today was a good day coming away with a podium and in particular a second, after the safety car we had some chatter issues once the tyre temperature had dropped, but I did my best to adapt around that. It was great to battle with Mackenzie and I felt maybe with a few more laps I could have taken the fight to Jason [O’Halloran], but we’ll have to wait until tomorrow for that. I’m pleased to have got second, a huge thanks to the Honda team we’ve worked hard to get me in the right place this weekend. We know the Fireblade is strong at Donington, as we showed last year, but we’re still trying to find something ‘perfect’, but as Uncle Tim said, ‘perfect doesn’t exist’, so that helped my outlook, helped me understand and to accept things and adapt, which I think we managed in qualifying. We deserved that podium today and I’m looking forward to two more races tomorrow. 

Ryo Mizuno

I was able to do my best in today's race. I tried to improve my pace in each session from all free practice sessions to today's race, but after the safety car I couldn't increase my pace and got separated from the group in front. I was able to keep a good pace at the end of the race, so I will use warm up tomorrow to find my pace and aim to move up further in the two races.

Takumi Takahashi

In today's race I didn't get a good speed, like I was hoping I had at Thruxton in Race 1. I managed to make up some places, but I still don't completely understand this track. I need to improve to get good speed and rhythm just after start. I’ll try to push more tomorrow. 

Tom Neave

I feel like I've got confidence back after the podium at Thruxton and feel I’m finally back to where I need to be, picking up from where we left off last year. I knew we could be strong here; this is my happy hunting ground. We started from pole and the result shows we can comfortably win the race come rain or shine. I’m so gutted to have been demoted to second place, I worked so hard for the win after dropping down to eighth at the start. We start tomorrow again from pole after I set the fastest lap, I know I’m on good form and have some fire back in my belly and the fact I didn’t win today, just makes me ever more hungry for tomorrow’s race.