Tyco Suzuki’s John Hopkins has made a steady start to his Cartagena MCE British Superbike testing campaign, getting used to riding a race bike after a year-long layoff.

The former MotoGP man was lapping in the late 1’36s, which was the same ballpark as the rest of the BDSB field in day one in Spain, and he says he needs to get more comfortable with the bike as time goes on.

“I did a couple of days here in 2011, I am somewhat familar with it. We spent most of the day working on myself, I havent ridden a racebike since 2012 so it was a learning day for us,” said Hopkins, speaking to bikesportnews.com at Cartagena.

“There has been a lot to get used to including depth perception but it has been great. I’ve still got loads to try, it’s just been a case of getting used to the bike again, trying to get comfortable.

“We made one tiny change today and we will do the same again tomorrow. I think my lowest lap was a 1’36’9 but that is ok for the first day.”