Uninjured by the original crash the damage was done when another rider ploughed into him. “In qualifying I got a good start and I was inside the top three. On the second corner it was a little bit slippery before the jump and I slipped and jumped wide.

I landed a little bit sideways and the rider next to me hit my front wheel and I crashed with him. Somebody else jumped and landed on top of me and the impact from that has broken my collarbone.

“It is a nice clean break and I will miss only three weeks. It’s frustrating because I have been riding well, I set the third fastest time in pre-qualifying here and everything was good. I’m not too disheartened by my injury – I realise it is just a part of the sport we all must deal with.”

Paulin was hampered by a bad crash in the previous round at Mallory Park in England. He collided with a fellow competitor in moto one and then struggled to get to grips with the Mallory circuit second time out. Even though he felt far from his best the European champion scored good points in moto two to consolidate his 12th place in the series standings.

“In the first race I was inside the top-10 but I came together with Seistola on a jump and we landed together and we crashed quite hard. My brake lever was twisted so I came into the pit lane to get it sorted and then continued with the race. I was riding quite good with some good lines and good lap times but the result was just not there – I didn’t score any points.

“In race two I had a decent start but I couldn’t find a good rhythm in the race. I was pushing hard but made many mistakes. In some corners I was very good and some corners I was not so good. It’s difficult for me to work out what happened today and I must spend the next two weeks training hard and practicing on the bike so it doesn’t happen again.”