Llewellyn knocked out of gear - literally.

Matt Llewellyn's championship hopes suffered a set back in the British Supersport 600 race at Mallory. Llewellyn lost a lot of ground on the opening lap of Sunday's race when his V&M Racing R6 Yamaha was knocked out of gear at the hairpin corner on the first lap of the race.

The Leicester rider was amongst the leading bunch of riders as they approached the corner for the first time, but as he tipped in another rider ran up the inside of the group too hot, forcing him to pick the bike up. The resulting domino effect knocked his machine out of first gear and he was left floundering in the corner as several riders shot past.

Llewellyn then stormed through the field from tenth place to third, before slipping back to fourth place in the closing stages when his tyres started to slide.

"I think I probably worked the tyres too hard in my efforts to force my way back through the field," he said. "I was so annoyed at what happened on the first lap, that I just wanted to make up the lost ground as quickly as I could."

Team boss Jack Valentine shared his rider's disappointment. "I was hoping we could come away from Mallory with the gap closed right down at the top of the Supersport 600 championship," he said. "As it stands now we're twenty one points behind the leader and realistically we now need the others to have a bit of bad luck in the remaining two rounds."

"We have to remain positive though. Anything can happen at the end of the season. If Matt can string a couple of really good results together and David can keep the pressure on who knows what might happen yet," he added.

Race results:

1. Karl Harris (Suzuki)
2. John McGuinness (Honda)
3. Kirk McCarthy (Honda)
4. Matt Llewellyn (Yamaha)
5. Ross McCullough (Yamaha)
6. Kim Ashkenazi (Suzuki)
7. Paul Young (Suzuki)
8. Gary Mason (Honda)
9. Michael Laverty (Suzuki)
10. Elliot Burgess (Yamaha).

Championship standings:

1. Karl Harris 185;
2. Kirk McCarthy 173
3. John McGuinness 170
4. Matt Llewellyn 164
5. Paul Young 121
6. Scott Smart 70
7. Rob Frost 64
8. Gary Mason 62
9. Glen Richards 55
10. Luke Quigley 47.