Relentless Suzuki's Josh Brookes just about kept his British Superbike title hopes alive with fifth and sixth places in the double-header at Donington Park yesterday but has a lot of work to do over the next five races if he is to realise the dream.

Brookes struggled in practice and qualifying with a crash on Friday but managed a second row grid slot for race one and took the same in race two. After finding pace at the end of the first encounter for sixth, he rode his own race in the second leg for fifth but now trails John Hopkins, on the Samsung GSX-R1000, by a cool 38 points with 125 remaining.

"There's not a lot to say really. I rode my backside off this weekend for fifth and sixth places. Everyone congratulated me at Brands when I won there, but that was easy: This weekend we rode really hard and got nothing for it. It just didn't come good for us. All we can do now is prepare-well for Silverstone," said the Aussie.