Kawasaki’s Loris Baz had to settle for second in both World Superbike races at Aragon over the weekend – as he was unable to make a move that stuck on his team-mate and eventual double race winner Tom Sykes.

The pair ended up giving the team an historic 1-2 finish in each 17-lap race at the Motorland track, with Sykes winning from Baz each time out. But it is not all bad for the French rider – as he’s now second in the overall championship standings and only four points behind Sykes who leads the series.

“There was a change in temperature for race two so we changed the rear tyre to suit it. We knew that race one would be hard for us because of the lower temperature but we hoped that the track would warm a little bit more to be sure to use the SC0 tyre,” said Baz.

“Finally it was on the limit in the opening race so we did not know what to do in race two. I pushed Pere my crew chief to use the soft one and I think it was a good decision because Tom seems to have struggled a bit more in race two on a different tyre.

“I caught him after a few laps and I think we had good race and we each enjoyed it. I tried to pass Tom but I lost the front a bit. I knew Melandri was closing behind so I wanted to overtake Tom as soon as possible. I could not do it and maybe I went a lap too early.

“When Marco came past we got involved for a while and we could not quite catch Tom. At this track we have usually struggled but here we are, close to the victory, on the podium twice and that is a good sign for the rest of the season. I am still second in the championship and now we go to Assen.”