Kawasaki’s Tom Sykes bagged a fifth and then a third place finish during the World Superbike race at Jerez on board his Ninja ZX-10R to maintain a strong championship lead with two rounds to go.

In the first 20-lapper Sykes moved up and down the order after missing a gear near the start, and had to work hard to overcome a less than ideal race set-up in cool conditions to finish fifth, only to be out-paced by Pata Honda's Jonathan Rea.

A strong recovery in race two, in which he finished third, saw him defend his championship leading status, with his 14th podium finish of the year leaving him with a  31 point advantage over double second place man, Aprilia’s Sylvain Guintoli.

But the Yorkshireman could not reach the dizzy heights of the top step of the rostrum – as that pleasure went to Aprilia’s Marco Melandri, but Sykes is not one to dwell on things and is already focusing on the next round in France.

“A lot of hard riding got me the podium in race two because physically it was really difficult. I had to use a lot of rider input. We made some changes in race two and came close to the front in third place," said Sykes.

“There was nothing more I could do and tried my hardest. I always thought this weekend could be a little bit uphill. Overall, I have to say I am satisfied, particularly as we had some misfortunes in race one.

“We did a decent job and we have not lost too much ground. I am very motivated and we have tried a lot of things this weekend. We will continue with our racing season and the guys have worked super hard to cater to my requests and needs here, so it was nice to repay them with a podium finish in race two.”

Click here for results