Hodgson: I was screaming in my helmet.

Factory Ducati rider Neil Hodgson scored a perfect double race win today at the opening rounds of the World Superbike Championship, at Valencia, Spain.

Riding the new 999 machine, Hodgson also improved on Troy Bayliss' best 2002 race time and set a new lap record of 1min 35.007secs in the process.

Today was also Hodgson's first double win, his first victory outside the UK, and gave him a career total of five SBK wins thus far.

"There was a lot of wind out there today which made the races a bit more physical because you are leaning forward and using the back brake a lot to keep the front wheel down, which was quite scary," declared Neil. "The early stages of race one were quite an experience because you have to get used to the start again after six months of no racing. I was just looking at what everyone else was doing and then made my move."

In race two, the Brit led from start to finish - smashing Ben Bostrom's lap record on the way - to notch up a perfect 50 points from the first round of the season. However, as he later explained, the race wasn't without incident.

"I made one mistake, when I was braking into the first corner with a back-marker on the inside. He moved to the outside and nearly pushed me off the track - I was screaming in my helmet, thinking it was all over," said the #100, before admitting the weekend couldn't have gone much better: "Fastest in every practice session, pole, lap record and a double win on my worst track - I'm so pleased with everything."

Team-mate Ruben Xaus finished runner-up in both races.