Kawasaki’s Tom Sykes had a solid World Superbike weekend at Laguna Seca as the Brit snatched the victory in race one and finished the final outing of the day in fourth – not bad considering it was a new track for the Yorkshire lad. But Sykes would have liked to have clinched a second podium, but overall is happy that he has extended his lead in the championship by 23 points.

Sykes was the leader of the second race for 21 of 26 laps but in the final two circuits he was passed by three riders and had to settle for fourth place. He had been fighting unexpected traction issues exiting corners for most of the race and rode well to stay in the lead for so long, but he was unable to make the most of his machine's performance as he could not get the power to the ground as he wanted.

The Englishman and new second place rider in the championship, Aprilia’s Eugene Laverty are tied on seven race wins apiece, and now Huddersfield’s finest is preparing for Magny Cours on Sunday to repeat the race victory he took there last season on the Ninja ZX-10R.

“It was great to win and I led for a long time today but that was the first time we have struggled with grip all weekend. We were six or seven tenths off our best times in the same track conditions and we have to think about why that was,” said Sykes.

“We know what our potential was here again. Overall, we have extended our championship lead but it would have been nice to taken that second podium. We can keep improving and we have a couple of good circuits coming up so we will move on with confidence. In less than a week’s time we will be in France and doing it all over again. We have worked hard and well all race weekend and took a win on Saturday."