Swan Yamaha's Tommy Hill lost his grip on the chase for the MCE-BSB crown on a tough Dutch day that saw him involved in a bizarre incident ahead of the opening race and then out muscled at the chicane in the scrap for third place by Alex Lowes.

Hill was riding his Swan Yamaha towards his starting position for the first race, through a busy grid when disaster struck as he explained. “I was coming through the back of the grid to go to my position. It was pretty busy there with people running around there with the bikes, the grid got so busy here. This mechanic from another team didn’t realise that I was there and ran into me and hit me. He jammed the brake lever on.

“I went over the bars there was nothing that I could do about it. The bike went down and snapped the rear set off the frame but the team did a great job to do a quick fix and get me out there to get in a lap time for the second race. I’m not happy, I crushed my crown jewels a bit, but shit happens.”

The team worked hard to repair the bike in their garage and he went out for half a dozen laps, setting the fastest lap of the race before pulling in, only to be docked the expect P1 start for the second race, given sixth place on the grid as tyre warmer were used on his bike after three minute board was shown as works continued on the bike.

Hill ran seventh on the opening lap but took first Stuart Easton, then his team-mate Nori Haga together with Michael Laverty. He eased third at the expense of Lowes but then lost out to him at the final corner.

“I knew I needed to score the points after the retirement in race one and I got up to speed and was pushing hard and got up to third but Shakey and Josh had got away a bit. I thought I could pull them in but then Alex (Lowes) put in a bit of a harsh move and that put me fourth. We now need to go to Silverstone and get back on the top step of the podium to get those points back in the standings,” reflected Hill.