EPayMe Yamaha’s John Hopkins has vowed to bounce straight back from what he described as his worst MCE British Superbike weekend of the year and believes that after setting the fastest-ever lap of Donington Park, he has the package for good results.

Hopkins put in a 1’28.856 in the final free practice session but then a crash in qualifying two and a non-finish in race two due to a cracked oil filter left the American former MotoGP star wondering what could have been.

“I am not going to lie it's getting kind of frustrating because I think Donington was the most disappointing round of the season so far, just because we went into the weekend with such high expectations. I think there were justifiable as well because we know we have the package, the Yamaha works well around Donington and I love the place,” said Hopkins.

“We wanted to kick start the results that we knew we were capable of running. Going into FP3 we did the fastest ever lap of Donington which was a big positive and that set us up going into qualifying.

“Unfortunately I made a tremendous mistake in qualifying which then set the pace for the rest of the weekend. That meant I had to start the first race in 18th and in the first race I made a great start and really got off the line well and made up almost two rows before I got into turn one.

“I had a big fight at the beginning of the race with Linfoot and we were back and forth for pretty much the entire part of the first race.  Unfortunately that used a lot of tyre from making a pass, then him re-passing, then passing him again. So from mid race on to the finish I had to settle for that and I feel that we had more in us than a ninth position showed.

“In race two I didn't get the best start, it wasn't bad but it wasn't as good as race one. I got baulked up in a couple of covers in the first laps and I just got stuck behind Laverty and I really didn't know how late I could be on the brakes. I found it really hard to get around him as he could brake so late. I knew my pace was stronger but unfortunately we just got caught behind him.

“I got black flagged with an oil leak, which was because of a cracked oil filter, and at the end of the day was disappointing. The crash in Q2 really seemed to then set the plan for the weekend.

“We have the package and the package to get results it's just all about Sunday. The good thing is we have two rounds and five races to show what we can do.”