Kawasaki’s Tom Sykes secured a third place finish in the first World Superbike race at Imola, and a fifth place in the second outing, but the Brit is not pleased and felt that he wasn’t able to show his true potential at the track today.

In the first 19-lap race at the Autodromo Internazionale Enzo e Dino Ferrari circuit Sykes was a clear third, taking his fifth podium of the season in the process.

He was unable to push as he felt he could, and that was evident to see in the second race. But most importantly he is now second in the overall championship standings, with 135 points, after Pata Honda’s Jonathan Rea did the double. The Northern Irishman now heads up the championship table with a four point advantage.

Now the Yorkshireman is concentrating on the next round at Donington Park, and it’s a case of lessons learnt for Sykes from this weekend at the Italian circuit.

“This weekend there is no question we missed some of our true performance and we were not quite on the money. I do not think we realised that the gap was as big as it proved to be,” said Sykes.

“In each race we had some limitations and unfortunately at this level you cannot ride around them and make a good result. We will learn from this, that is for sure. It has not been the easiest weekend but you cannot have a perfect weekend every time. Now we can move on and we have some good circuits coming up for us.”

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