Numb foot caused Hopkins red-flag highside.

John Hopkins has revealed that his huge highside - which forced Sunday's German Grand Prix to be stopped and restarted - was caused by the Suzuki star losing feeling in his already injured foot, resulting in the Anglo American accidentally shifting down a gear.

Having already suffered a frightening fourth gear highside on Friday, which left him with a broken bone in his foot and a whole list of other upper body injuries, the #21 went on to qualify tenth - one place behind team-mate Kenny Roberts, marking the first time the 2000 world champion had started ahead of Hopkins this year.

After some turn one chaos, Hopper had settled into 12th early on in the race, but on the sixth lap he spectacularly lost control of his GSV-R - his bike sliding almost totally sideways before digging in and pitching him high into the air, before he landed heavily on his back.

The race was stopped as both the rider and machine were removed from the track. Unfortunately, Friday's injuries were compounded in the fall, with the fracture to his left foot becoming a full dislocation of the broken bone.

"Well, I'm battered and bruised," said John. "I had one of the worst high-sides I've ever had on Friday and then came close to topping that one off this afternoon.

"It was my fault really. I've been taking a few painkillers that I've been getting from Dr Costa. I just tried to do the best I could and stick with the lead group, but unfortunately my foot was bandaged up and I just lost feeling in it," he revealed.

"That was really dangerous because you are on the edge of the tyre so much here. With a broken foot, I just couldn't feel it on the shifter and I tried to keep my foot clear but accidentally hit the lever on that corner, the bike shifted to second and then I was flying.

"Looks like I won't be doing too much motocrossing at home now. I was also planning to do some promotional events with Red Bull and Crescent during the break, but I need to be at home and recover for Brno. I went well there last year and I'm desperate to get a good result," he concluded.

Meanwhile, the race was re-started with all riders - bar Hopkins - in the position they had finished the original race. Roberts Jr began the reduced 25-lap distance in 11th place and managed to move up to 10th on lap five.

However, the American was then repassed by Makoto Tamada, with the Japanese finishing some 15-seconds ahead at the chequered fag.

"Today was about where I expected to finish in the dry," he declared. "Basically that's where we seem to be bike-wise right now. We still need help to get something a little bit more competitive inside the chassis. For me that's just the way it is at the moment."

Suzuki Racing general manager Masahito Imada has been with Paul Denning's team for the last two GPs and claims he now knows what is needed to improve performance.

"I have now seen the team in action at the last two races and I understand what we have to do to make more advances with the Suzuki GSV-R," he said. "I will now take all the information I have from the races and study it carefully back in Japan. I will see what steps we can take to make the bike a better machine and to strive for better results whatever the weather."

With the next round of the championship not until Brno on August 28th, Denning hopes Suzuki and Bridgestone will have time to find solutions to their current problems.

"There is a lot to achieve during the summer break and the Factory will be working hard to continue development in the same direction," he said. "I think Bridgestone will have learnt valuable lessons this weekend, and a lot of positives from the performance of Shinya Nakano and the speed displayed during the practice sessions by all the Bridgestone racers."