British Superbikes: Hickman up to seventh after Brands Hatch

Contesting round four of the British Superbike Championship, Hickman recorded fifth and seventh-place finishes in his two races to move up to eighth in the overall rider standings on 61 points.

Hickman said: “It’s been a very good weekend for both myself and the team and although it was a bit of a culture shock coming back to the short circuits after the TT, I had two good races.

“I struggled a bit in practice initially but made a breakthrough in qualifying and went on to pick up some good points.”

He rode well during free practice and qualifying, and started the first race from the third row of the grid.

The track was wet from earlier rain which made the surface treacherous, but Hickman rode well and made his way through to third place at the halfway stage of the race.

He was pushed back to fourth when eventual race winner Josh Brookes went past, and one lap later lost out to Danny Buchan, but went on to complete the race in fifth place to pick up 11 championship points.

The second race was run in dry conditions and the pace was hot.

Hickman was seventh on the opening lap and passed Glenn Irwin on lap three to take up sixth place.

The Lincolnshire rider held station until lap 16 when Christian Iddon snatched his position and he had to be satisfied with seventh place at the flag to earn another nine championship points.

Hickman added: “Race one saw very changeable conditions and although it would have been nice to have got a podium, fifth place was a good result especially as I haven’t ridden the new Smiths BMW much in the wet.

“Seventh in the second race was okay, and I have moved up from 12th to eighth in the rider standings and a lot closer to the top six so we’re slowly but surely getting close to where we want to be.”

The next round is at Knockhill, in Scotland, over the weekend of June 28 to 30.