Robbie and the team came away from Silverstone wishing they never set foot on the circuit, after another disaster weekend left Robbie with no points to close the title challenge ahead of the season finale at Oulton Park.

For Friday practice, things were looking really good for the team, who were trying various settings and race tyres ahead of Sundays 18 lapper. Robbie complete both sessions fully and came away with some great confidence ahead of Qualifying.

Come Saturday morning, things took a turn for the worse. Overnight someone had tampered with the bike and stuffed various items down the exhaust overnight. The team quickly rushed to get things setup again and head out for qualifying, which was short lived after Robbie had a high speed crash at Maggots corner, after setting a time good enough for the top 10 at that time. Having to sit out the session, Robbie was unsure what caused the crash, as he didn’t feel like he was pushing too hard at that particular corner.
The return of the bike was not for the faint hearted. The team spent the whole afternoon putting the bike back to a fit state, and did so with only a few moments to spare.

Robbie head out for qualifying, and instantly matched his times from QP1, on old, hard tyres. He then pulled in for a change of tyre to the softer compound, head out and then came the red flag caused by oil on the circuit. Once the session got underway, there was water on the fastest part of the track, which made it impossible for Robbie to improve, leaving him 23rd on the grid for the race.

"I’m absolutely gutted not to be able to improve on time. The crash this morning was strange, I wasn’t pushing at all, and I saw on my dash that I was lapping at 1m30s pace, but I was feeling good to knock at least a second off my time, but down I went. We had the data straight off the bike and looked whether anything was wrong; I had braked slightly earlier and just lost the front. There is no one to blame but myself.
The guys spend all day getting the bike back together, and surprisingly enough, the bike felt good in QP2. I instantly matched my times from QP1 and was definitely on for improving. But then the session was stopped and it ruined it all. We were told of an oil spillage but weren’t aware that there was running water on the track - at the same corner I had crashed in QP1. It caught out all of the riders, most of which running straight on. I feel like I could have improved, but I didn’t want to crash again, I needed the track time so I was playing it a little safe" explained Robbie

Robbie’s luck then totally ran out for the race, they had trouble starting the bike and had to use a Superbike starter to get it running, but the race was short lived when Robbie had to retire on the warm up lap because the engine completely cut out. The failure to finish marks Robbie's second of the season. Seriously hurting his title chances.

"What can I say? It’s so frustrating to work all weekend on setup and fixing the bike, only to have an electrical failure on the bike in the race. It’s heartbreaking to see that we couldn’t capitalise on Sam (Lowes) not being there. We really had a shot at the championship but now it’s faded away. We had our new sponsors their Fuchs-Silkolene and I really wanted to impress them. It’s such a shame for everyone involved in the team. We will be rebuilding the bike ahead of Oulton, and I have only one thing on my mind - to win" explained Robbie

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