PBM Kawasaki's Tom Sykes took the second World Superbike race win in absolutely atrocious conditions at the Nurburgring this afternoon after runaway leader Noriyuki Haga crashed out two laps before it was red-flagged.
It was Sykes' first WSB win in two years of trying and he crossed the line four seconds ahead of Liberty Ducati's Sylvain Guintoli with the Frenchman's team-mate Jakub Smrz going past Jonathan Rea just before the race was stopped as the Irishman got up from a crash into turn one.
Haga led away from the lights with Rea and Sykes giving chase while the Yamahas of Marco Melandri and Eugene Laverty sat in fourth and fifth while championship leader Checa was mired down in 11th place. Rea started to have trouble with his clutch straightaway, which was pushing him wide into turn one and allowed Sykes to move through on lap three.
Guintoli joined the Yamaha party with BMW's Leon Haslam looming large and Leon Camier also started to make his way through the field. Haga was lapping more than a second faster than the pack by lap five as the rain intensified and Laverty was signalling race control to stop it.
They ignored him and he was forced to continue his battle with his team-mate while Guintoli moved into third place. Haslam crashed at turn 14 but re-joined in 14th place but the attrition rate started to increase as James Toseland was taken to the medical centre after his crash with 12 laps to go.
Mark Aitchison was the next to fall out of ninth and then Rea and Camier both went down unhurt, followed by Haga which handed Sykes the lead. Guintoli had other ideas and tried to move past the Huddersfield man, but Sykes was having none of it.
Laverty crossed the line in fifth, just ahead of Melandri with Ayrton Badovini creeping into seventh just ahead of Carlos Checa. Haslam recovered to ninth with Maxine Berger rounding out the top ten. Lascorz, Corser and Rolfo were the only other finishers.
