Moto Rapido Ducati’s John Hopkins had to push through the pain barrier in the second of yesterday’s MCE British Superbike races after smashing his already-broken foot on a kerb in the opening encounter.

Hopkins had ridden with some fuelling issues during race one and aggravating the bones he broke at Donington didn’t help but come race two, the Californian was able to push for a top-ten finish and believes the team is now making steps forward.

“We’re getting there, we’re making progress. That said we got the best starting position we could with the fuelling issues issue for race two. I smashed my foot in the curve coming into Graham Hill in race one -  it’s only been two weeks since I broke three bones in the foot so it’s obviously not healed and that made it quite sore.

“I got a pretty good start in race two and started making my way up through the field. But I was fighting through the pain and slightly clipped my foot again about a quarter of the way through it. I started to let the pain get the better of me but I think when Bradley Ray came past me it gave me that extra burst of adrenaline, I just said ‘screw it’ and went for it.

“The end quarter of the race we were doing the same lap times as the lead group. We finished the race strong. It’s an improvement. Obviously not where we want to be yet, not where we are capable of being. But we finished two races today and we made some improvements from Donington. We’re going to some circuits I really enjoy now, so I’m looking forward to the next few races.”