BSB: Hopkins: 'It feels like my bike now!'

John Hopkins is confident of improved results as the 2016 MCE British Superbike season resumes at Knockhill next weekend after a ‘massive step forward’ between Brands Hatch and the Snetterton test.

The ePayMe Yamaha team as a whole took a step forward at Brands Hatch, with both Hopkins and Stuart Easton feeling much more at home on their YZF-R1 superbikes and both riders were able to build on this as the team took part in the first day of testing at Snetterton.

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Having struggled with a lack of front end feel throughout the season so far, Hopkins says the recent improvements have started to make the bike feel like his own.

“We’ve made some massive steps forward,” he told MCN. “Honestly, it’s been a struggle results wise since the beginning of the season and it’s not where we want to be or where we need to be. We’ve just been struggling with getting a good strong feeling from the front end and we’ve tried a lot of things but it wasn’t until Brands that we made an improvement. From there we had a clear idea of where we needed to go and it’s been hugely beneficial here.

“It’s not an instant cure to getting to the top of the podium immediately but the bike now completely feels like it’s my bike. I can ride it how I want to ride it, my style is usually late and hard on the brakes, rushing it in and getting it picked up as quick as I can and I haven’t been able to do that, I’ve had to adapt to what I’ve been allowed to do but now it feels like my bike, I can push it into the hairpins, I have a lot of confidence in braking. We’ve quite a bit of work to do in some of the faster corners to get confidence there to hold the line but we’re getting there.”

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