Swan Yamaha's Michael Laverty has today spoken openly about the team orders which helped team-mate Tommy Hill to the 2011 British Superbike Championship over three races at the Brands Hatch finale.

Although Laverty was a long shot to win the title come Sunday morning, had he won both races he would have lost by just one point with Hill and Hopkins tied for first if the rest of the positions remained the same. Here he talks through race three, among other things, and how he felt:

"I was trying to get to the front early to try and control the race but I went wide at Druids and then Shakey pushed me a little bit wider onto the damp stuff. The rear let go and I lost my drive, Ellison slipped past and then Hopkins passed me late into Surtees which put me wide again so before I knew it I was back in sixth or seventh and that was the end of that plan.

"So from there I was in the perfect position to be Tommy's wingman and that was all I could do to help really. After a couple of laps, Tommy was starting to lose touch with Hopper so I was a bit stuck as to what to do. I had the choice of stay behind and hope he picked his pace up or go past, tap my seat and hope he could come with me.

"It was a tough one as I knew that Tommy had been told I would not come past him so if I did, would that put him off his rhythm even more than he already was? I decided to stick with it and see if Tommy made a mistake that resulted in a easy pass for me and then tow him up.

"Anyway, he managed to collect himself. I don't know whether he took a breath, saw that Hopper was going away and relaxed or what, but his pace came back to him and we started going forward again. Something definitely changed on lap five or six and our pace went up. Then I just marked him and kept an eye on what was happening behind.

"Rutter was there and not making up much ground but then I saw Josh coming and I thought he wouldn't be shy about getting in the mix but in fairness to him he didn't get involved. It took a couple of laps to respond when Josh passed me as I needed to get my head back into race mode, as I had been a bit too relaxed behind Tommy and Hopper.

"When Tommy passed Hopper I had the opportunity to go through as well when he drifted slightly wide at Druids, but I didn't want to ruin Hoppers race, and I'm glad now that I didn't as it turned out to be the race of the year. I was a bit frustrated I had to be in that position as if I had won all three races, which I had the pace to do especially after race one on Saturday, I would have lost the title by one point.

"My biggest regret is missing the last lap flag during race one at Silverstone, had I have beaten Hopper then rather than creating a further four point gap between Tommy and Hopper it may have been a different story. It was hard to be put in a position where you're under team orders that early, when you're still in the hunt but I had to suck it up. I never moaned, I played my part but next time it will be written into the contract so I'm not in that position again.

"Hindsight is a wonderful thing and it is easy to say now I could have won all three races, but you only have to look at the lap times I could do all day Saturday to realise it was possible. The crash in the second race put me out of contention but I was in a rush to get to the front, went past Shakey and then crashed on the damp stuff.

"Had team orders not been in place, would I have been in that much of a hurry to get to the front? Probably not. It may have been a different story but I'm not going to cry about it now. I've had a good season, I'm happy the team and Tommy won it but next year is another year…"