Thruxton played host to round six of the 2025 British Superbike Season. With Lee Jackson recovering from injuries sustained during the final race at Brands Hatch, Josh Brookes would be joined for the weekend by Italian championship front-runner, Gabriele Giannini.

A strong start to the weekend would see Josh Brookes go straight through into Q2, whilst Giannini made a good impression, finding himself well within the mix upon his debut at the Hampshire circuit.

In typical Thruxton fashion, the lap times were closely contested throughout the race meeting. By the end of the Saturday’s qualifying sessions, Brookes would line up fifteenth on the grid, with Giannini in twentieth.

The opening race of the weekend saw Brookes set an impressive pace, running the same lap times as the race leaders. The #25 would ultimately cross the flag in twelfth place – picking up more critical points for the championship. However, the pace shown in the race would put the Australian in good stead for the following day’s races.

On the other side of the garage, debutant Giannini would, unfortunately, see his race brought to a premature end on the opening lap, due to an off at the club chicane.

Red flags would disrupt the second race of the weekend, shortening the sprint race to just eight laps. Brookes would finish another close race with more points for the team in thirteenth place. Meanwhile, more difficulties would strike Giannini, the Italian, unable to finish the race due to an engine failure.

The third and final race of the weekend was yet another classic Thruxton packed race for the early part, with two seconds covering the top fifteen. After starting seventeenth on the grid, Brookes would fight his way through to cross the line in another point-scoring position in fourteenth. Giannini would also have a strong ride, pushing through to nineteenth place from twenty-fourth.

Overall, the results didn’t reflect the pace that both riders had shown over the weekend. With Thruxton being notorious for tight racing and lap times, it meant that the speed shown wasn’t quite as rewarded as it would have been elsewhere. Nonetheless, there are still many learnings to take away from the weekend into the next round.

The British Superbike championship heads to Cadwell Park for round seven of the 2025 season on the 23rd of August.

Josh Brookes, Superbike Rider:

‘Unfortunately, another disastrous weekend. We started off P6 on the first day which was looking nice, but then things didn’t really progress very well from there. We made a lot of changes from there trying to improve the package, but it didn’t really make any progress. So then when I went into qualifying, I wasn’t able to set a time that was competitive to be near the front. Then, I actually got a decent qualifying position after race one, but the start of race two, I just got beat up in the first couple of corners and lost the good starting position and sort of had to be back in the fight again. Then finishing out the weekend in the last race, just trying to ride conservative, save the tyre, trying to hang with the group, in fact the whole race was one streamline of riders, but I wasn’t in a position to attack or overtake. It wasn’t until the final couple of laps, people started to get messy, overtaking me and I was overtaking back and ultimately just didn’t get a result that we would be satisfied with. Thruxton is always known to be quite a challenge with tyres, and something I’ve always took pride in being one of the best at managing tyres, but for whatever reason in the last few years, I haven’t been able to convert that into results. We just have to try and put it behind us and move onto Cadwell and see if we can find better days.

With regards to Cadwell, I’ve been focussing on now, the present. But now that the weekend is finished, I have a moment to think ahead and you know I imagined it would be nice to have a test at Cadwell. I know they often got evening practices and stuff there, but we haven’t really had the opportunity to do that. So, we will be straight into the event and make the most of the time we’ve got, so not really sure what to expect it’ll unfold as we go through the process.’

Garbiele Giannini, Superbike Rider:

‘It was a really difficult weekend because I’d never tried the bike, never tried the track, it is all new for me. But, I’m happy to finish the race today, as yesterday I crashed in the second lap because I arrive too fast and closed the front. Then today in the sprint race, the engine broke and it was really unlucky. But in race three, it was important to finish the race for me and the team. Well I’m really excited to ride in BSB, thanks to Clarissa, Sommai, Jonny and all of DAO Racing for the opportunity. I hope to ride another time in BSB. Thank you.’

Jonny Bagnall, Team Manager:

‘For Josh the weekend started off not too badly, in the first two free practices straight through to qualifying two. From there we just went down hill, we really struggled with rear grip, with new components to try this weekend. Maybe in hindsight we should’ve saved them for a bit of a test, but we went ahead with it anyway and through the weekend Josh just couldn’t get a good feeling on the bike, maybe lacking a bit of consistency. We’ve got a test coming up so we can get back to what we were planning to do, with a bit more time and a bit more though hopefully we can make some progress with the bike.

For Gabriele, it was a bit of a tall ask to come into BSB. It is a competitive series, but I think he has done exceptional for his first time on Pirelli tyres, first time at the circuit and first time on the bike, I think he has adapted very quickly. It was a bit of a shame in race one, getting caught in the race pace and having a small little tip off, but glad he was ok. Mechanical in race two, which was unfortunate for the team and him, as it was of been great to get him more track time. Then race three, I think he just rode round to bring it home and at least get a result. He was obviously in the top 20, so nothing to be looked at, but it was a good result for him.’