Danny Buchan has revealed he’s targeting his first Bennetts British Superbike win at Knockhill this weekend, but isn’t afraid to settle for points with his ultimate aim of a Showdown spot.

The Scottish round was the highlight of the FS-3 Racing rider’s 2018 season as he led practice en route to two podium finishes, and after clocking the second quickest time of the day behind pace-setter Scott Redding, he’s feeling confident heading into tomorrow’s qualifying.

¬“We rolled out straight away on my race bike in FP1 and instantly felt comfortable,” he told Bikesport News. “And I managed to be P2 on one tyre, so I was quite happy with that.

“Then we made some changes for FP2 which was quite positive. We went a few different ways with the bike to see how it reacted. We’ve got all the data from last year but the bike is a completely different kettle of fish from the 2018 bike, there’s more power in the 2019 bike so we’ve just had to adapt.

“I did my fastest lap of FP2 on the 25th lap of that tyre so that was good. I put a new tyre in at the end, but I had a similar thing at Brands where it was the same batch number – I just didn’t have much grip from the off with that tyre.

“Day one I never seem to find a consistent flow on day one. It’s a natural thing in my career, I wake up day two better usually so to be consistently good on day one is really good for me.”

Buchan, who finished last year’s Scottish scraps just behind race winners Leon Haslam and Jake Dixon, has been touted as one of the favourites for victory this weekend with the two 2018 title contenders now on the world stage.

But he knows it’s going to be a big ask to overhaul the V4 Panigales, especially with the pace set by BSB newbie Redding and his Be Wiser team-mate Josh Brookes.

“When you look at it like that it’s like yeah I can win races, but you’ve got Scott coming into it fast, Josh is fast, the two Ducatis work well everywhere. It’s not going to be easy, but I would love to win two.

“I’ve changed a lot in the way I do things. If I’m sitting in second or third and I think I can win the race, I’m obviously going to try, but if all I’ve got is sixth, I’ll take it. That’s where I’ve changed a lot as a rider over the past few years.

“When I’m racing I don’t think about the championship, I’m racing that race. But ultimately I need to get myself in that showdown and DNFs isn’t going to get there.”