Moto Rapido Ducati’s John Hopkins again aggravated the foot he broke in a crash at Donington Park during the second MCE British Superbike race at Oulton and will use the time off between now and Knockhill in order to get healthy again.

Hopkins bashed his foot on a kerb when Josh Brookes went past and rode on adrenaline for the rest of the race. The Californian now plans to get everything back into full working order before setting his sights on a Showdown spot this season.

“Oulton Park circuit is a place where I’ve had success in the past. A circuit I enjoy and a circuit the Ducati goes well at. But we just never got the potential out of the bike and myself throughout the weekend. We just struggled with grip issues in race one, every corner I had no edge grip,” said Hopkins.

“Race two, I got a good start and then in an early lap I had a coming together with Brookes. He had made a pass into the chicane and completely shoved me into the kerb which just smacked by bad foot, dead square into the kerb. The adrenaline took over from that point and I was still right there with the group in front of me and I figured I had a good shot at staying with them.

“Unfortunately I got stuck behind Linfoot and I just couldn’t make the pass. It wasn’t until he actually made a big mistake that I was finally able to get around him. By that time the group had basically disappeared and that was where we had to finish.

“Disappointing because that’s not where we know we can be. Looking forward to this break now. Get my foot, my body, everything back to 100 per cent and finally make our way back up to the top six.”