Swan Yamaha's Tommy Hill saw his grip on the British Superbike title slacken and slip into the hands of rival John Hopkins at the Donington Park round after the Lingfield man could only muster a second and third compared to the American's double victory.

Hill visibly struggled during the lunchtime opener and got his motor changed in the interval but there was nothing he could do about the American's pace and had to follow him across the line. Hill was adamant he wanted wins to increase his lead but he now trails Hopkins by three points.

"I struggled to get off the line in race two after we changed the engine as it felt like we were losing a lot of speed over the weekend. I was gutted with the first race result despite finishing on the podium. The boys did a good job to change the motor between the races. It took me a few laps to get used to the engine and then John and I managed to pull a bit of a gap," said Hill, speaking to bikesportnews.com after the second outing.

"Hopkins came past me and there wasn’t much I could do. I saw the other Jon (Kirkham) was catching me, and I hope big Jack (Valentine) isn't giving them any team orders! It hasn’t been the worst weekend for me with two podiums but we needed wins and we need to change that at Silverstone. Hopkins has probably got the upper hand after his WSB pole there but hopefully we can talk to Yamaha and even that out."