Honda Racing's Xavier Fores lost his Bennetts British Superbike Showdown spot to none other than team-mate Andrew Irwin at Thruxton after the young Irishman recorded his maiden win.

Fores had been sitting in sixth place with a small advantage over Irwin but the Carrickfergus man's win in race one and second in race two was enough to dethrone the former WorldSBK star who had to be content with two sevenths at a track that was new to him.

To be honest I feel frustrated this weekend, I had good pace to be on the podium, but starting towards the back of the grid was hard to manage," said Fores.

The first few laps here are crazy and I had to adapt quite a bit to be strong in the first part of the race. The second race I did the third fastest lap, which means I am always improving lap-by-lap.

"Coming home with two seventh place finishes is good for me, especially at this kind of track where I have not ridden before and it’s not easy for me to defend my position.

"I feel if we can improve our qualification for the next races we will be so much more competitive. Good job from all the team, we had a great weekend and especially with Andrew’s win and podium, I feel we now have a really good package with the Fireblade."

Fores now has to go to Cadwell, which couldn't be any more different to Thruxton, and get to grips with a thin ribbon of tarmac with a jump two-thirds of the way round. It is, however, his team's home round and their HQ is a stone's throw - of you're Popeye - from the circuit.