Kawasaki’s Tom Sykes dominated today’s World Superbike race weekend at Aragon by coming away with not one but two victories – but the Brit believes there is still more to do with his ZX-10R and the bike is not ‘perfect’ yet in his eyes.
In the opening race Sykes headed into an immediate lead and pulled away from the rest of the pack in his inimitable style. In the end he won by 4.275 seconds from team-mate Loris Baz, having set a new lap record of 1’57.664 on lap two.
Sykes came under pressure in the warmer race two, as track temperatures doubled, with Baz his constant companion. A late challenge from Aprilia’s Marco Melandri was rebuffed by both Sykes and Baz, after the Italian rider ran wide in the entry to the final hairpin during an out-braking manoeuvre. Sykes held off his team-mate by only 0.338 seconds.
“It was very important to put in this kind of performance after the first weekend in Phillip Island. We scored two race wins today but after four or five laps of race two it felt far from perfect," said Sykes.
“Race one was very good and we had a good set-up that gave us a consistent pace on a cold track. I was expecting more of a drop off in that race but it was good to the end. I thought race two was going to be more straightforward in hot conditions so I went for the same SC0 as race one.
“There was a change in temperature in race two on the starting grid and I had to dig extra deep and try to make the best of the changing situation. The two guys behind me for sure had more grip than me but we were for sure able to put the Ninja ZX-10R on the pieces of tarmac those guys were looking for.
“I had a plan on the last lap to keep them behind me - and it worked. If someone had have made the pass and made it stick they would have deserved the win. Marco tried a pass and could not quite make the corner on the final lap. It was great racing and good for the spectators.”
