Peter Hickman ends frustrating weekend with seventh at Donington Park

Peter Hickman was again struck by bad luck during the weekend following a promising start in the British Superbikes.

After proving his pace in free practice the Lincolnshire rider missed out when it came to the races.

He was caught out by the wet and cold conditions in the opening race of the weekend, before he fought back in race two to be battling with the leading pack until a snapped chain put him out of the action.

A determined ride through the pack in the final race meant he scored valuable points in seventh place, heading into the final round in sixth place in the overall standings and trailing Danny Buchan ahead of him by just two points.

“That was a proper tough weekend for myself and the FHO Racing BMW team," Hickman said.

"As seems to have been the way for the last few rounds, Friday went awesome and I felt really comfortable and felt we had some good pace.

“The rain came on Saturday and that wasn’t ideal as I couldn’t find the feeling that I wanted and I just didn’t have the confidence to do what I needed to do.

"I feel like we have work to do when it is wet. I build up in qualifying, but I felt better and my last lap was faster and I was improving.

“Going into the race I felt ok, but the bike felt different in the race and I tried to settle in, and was sat behind Jason as it was going to be a bit of attrition.

"The bike let go and fired me over the handlebars and I wasn’t expecting it, so I was really disappointed as it wasn’t ideal when I wasn’t pushing hard and the team did a great job to get the FHO Racing BMW back together again for the morning.

“On Sunday the race was dry and I was making headway and up to sixth and in touching distance of the front group despite being down the grid at the start because of race one.

"The chain snapped and hit me in the back of the leg; it is obviously a really unusual thing to happen and I was lucky.

"I was gutted as we had pace for the podium and to challenge for the win. It was disappointing as the bike has been faultless all year.

“Race three it rained again and the organisers did a great job to wait and then get it started; I rode around and I just wanted to finish and score points.

"I was fairly happy with the result in the end, and my odd weekends seem to continue! I have to thank the FHO Racing BMW team for their hard work over the weekend and look to do a good job at Brands Hatch.”