Kawasaki’s Tom Sykes scored his first career double at Donington Park and in doing so moved to within four points of the championship lead after five rounds. The Brit described the weekend as a ‘fairytale’ and everything seemed to click into place for the Huddersfield rider at his home circuit this afternoon.

Having set a new track best in Superpole on Saturday Sykes rode brilliantly and almost faultlessly in each 23-lap race at Donington to score not only his first double win, but take a new lap record in race two, a 1’28.074, set on lap four.

He was a start-to-finish leader in both races and after a small change to his front suspension settings for race two he went four seconds faster than in race one, despite a rise in track temperatures.

“I have been in World Superbike for a few years now and I got the first double win on home soil is a fairytale. One click on the front suspension between races made the difference and we could see that in the second race time, which was better than the first one,” said Sykes.

“The Ninja ZX-10R is working well and it has been all weekend so I feel very motivated. We are racing in a World Championship and these guys are as fast as you like and very competitive, so it is not as easy at it looked. Kawasaki is a very close unit and we have worked hard and everybody has seen how much better we are in the races.

“I got the circuit record yesterday and I got the new lap record in race two so I have the full set. I really enjoyed the support from the crowd and I hope they enjoyed the show. No better place to do my first double than at Donington Park. A good weekend and we are closer in the championship, just four points from the top. We’re in a strong situation, we have a good base setting and now we are going to some fantastic circuits.”