Sykes remains in contention

Sykes’ last trip to the iconic German track last season saw him claim his debut World Superbike win in the pouring rain.

Any hopes of a repeat performance this time around were scuppered by bike issues. The weather gods delivered perfect track conditions but Sykes was left craving last year’s torrential rain as his tyres failed to deal with the heat.

Those machinery issues meant that Sykes was unable to live with the pace of the two race winners Max Biaggi and Chaz Davies - ending in fourth and fifth in the two contests.

But while on paper that seemingly represented a poor day at the office Sykes was rejoicing in his damage limitation - and the struggles of his rivals.

While championship leader Biaggi claimed 25 points in race one he could only finish 13th in race two to bag an overall haul of 28 points compared with third-placed Sykes’ 24.

With the championship’s second-placed rider Marco Melandri unable to finish either race, a tricky weekend ended up looking anything but.

His rivals’ struggles mean Sykes will head into the last two rounds at Portimao and Magny Cours with a real chance of lifting the World Superbike crown, trailing leader Biaggi by just 26.5 points.

“Things could have been much better,” said Sykes. “Some other riders had a worse day than us so I am quite happy to take good points in each race.

“A difficult day but we pulled points ultimately we cut the championship lead a bit. We will keep working hard for more good finishes.”

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