Samsung Suzuki's John Hopkins said he didn't feel the pain in his damaged right hand until the cooling down lap after today's opening British Superbike race at Donington Park but then it kicked in.

Hopkins took the win after going past Swan Yamaha's Michael Laverty with four laps to run. He then proved a little too fast for the Irishman and clawed back some points on championship leader Tommy Hill, who finished third.

The focus going into this race, hand injury or not, was to start winning. We do have to be consistent and we do want to be on the podium but there were 11 points to claw back and we got a few of those," said Hopkins, speaking to bikesportnews.com after the race.

"It was a hell of a race to watch and we're 100 per cent going for a win in race two. The adrenalin really did mask the pain in that race though. I didn't feel the finger until it was on the cool down lap and then the heartbeat started coming through my finger."