Russian one-two completes excellent weekend for Sykes

Sykes was buoyed heading into Sunday’s races following the news a day earlier that he had re-signed with the Kawasaki Racing Team for next season - a deal that includes an option for a further two years.

And the 27-year-old wrote his name into the history books in race one as he led for the majority to cross the finish line first by over eight seconds to win the first-ever World Superbike race in Russia.

But Sykes was not finished there, going on to lead race two for 14 laps only to end up second to new championship leader Marco Melandri by just 0.9756 seconds.

However, despite an agonising finish to end his Russian adventure, Sykes was still left beaming with his weekend’s work.

“I felt I had a good package and could have won both races, but when you are riding with guys of Marco’s standard you cannot leave things to the last minute,” he said.

“But, realistically, we are happy. A first and second, still third overall and the gap at the front tightening up.

“There are still a lot of points to play for so we will keep pushing for the final three rounds that’s for sure.”

 British Eurosport is the Home of Bikes, showing all MotoGP, World Superbike and British Superbike races on Sky (410/411) and Virgin Media (521/525) or online/on mobile via eurosportplayer.co.uk