John Hopkins shrugged aside the pain of a finger injury to lead the opening free practice sessions ahead of the penultimate round of the MCE Insurance British Superbike Championship Showdown at Silverstone.

The Samsung Crescent Suzuki rider has a three point lead in the title standings over Swan Yamaha’s Tommy Hill ahead of the two races on Sunday following a double victory in the previous round at Donington Park. Hopkins flew back home to California immediately after the Donington Park round for further surgery.

Hopkins, who had crushed the finger into “four or five pieces” in a crash while practicing for the Brno round of MotoGP last month, had plates and screws inserted to re-inforce it and help the healing process. “That needed a massive incision and I have to contend with with soft tissue damage and the pain comes from that. The pain level is considerably higher than it was at Donington Park.”

Hopkins was able to draw on his experiences and the data collected when he rode as a “wild-card” entry into the World Superbike event at the Northamptonshire circuit back in July taking Superpole start. “That helped considerably as I was able to keep the laps to a minimum and do what I had to do to be comfortable. It has been tough. The pain is extreme because you don’t get the same adrenalin jolt in practice that you do in qualifying and races. But, we will loosed up by Sunday and be on it and up there somehow.”

Hopkins put in a best lap of 2m 06.152s, an average speed of 104.65mph, to be a little over half a second up on his Swan Yamaha rival Hill. The Lingfield rider however in not too concerned believing that there is much more to come from his bike. “We have some ideas and things to work on overnight ahead of qualifying,” he said.

“Overall this has been a good start to the weekend, the bike is feeling good and we knew that John would be fast from the start, in fact I am a bit surprised that he was not a bit quicker. We’ve been quick throughout on race tyres and I’m well pleased as I’d not ridden this bike here before,” added Hill.

He was 0.185s ahead of his team-mate and fellow Title Fighter Michael Laverty who needs to ride for wins in this round to make up ground lost in a first lap tangle with Shane Byrne in the previous round. Byrne, bidding to take the title for a third time, was fifth fastest for HM Plant Honda, a quarter of a second down on the impressive Jon Kirkham aboard the second Samsung Crescent Suzuki.

Tyco Honda’s Peter Hickman, like Kirkham, is chasing the seventh place in the overall standings. He set the sixth best practice time ahead of the fastest Mirror.co.uk BSB-EVO class rider Graeme Gowland riding the WFR Honda.

Michael Rutter who is returning after injury set the eighth best time on his Rapid Solicitors Bathams Ducati ahead of Motorpoint Yamaha’s Alex Lowes. That leaves the remaining two Title Fighters facing an uphill struggle. Josh Brookes aboard the Relentless Suzuki was in tenth place on the leaderboard just ahead of reigning champion Ryuichi Kiyonari riding the second HM Plant Honda.


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