Tom Sykes says his second place finish in today’s World Superbike race at the Lausitzring was ‘acceptable’ – but is hoping he can be in a better position to challenge for the win tomorrow.

The Kawasaki Racing Team rider crossed the line some 10 seconds behind winner Chaz Davies, and knows finding the difference overnight is going to be a tall order. But he admitted he was happy with the job the team did, and believes they did the very best they could under the circumstances

“I have to be fairly pleased with this because I think we’ve done a great job,” he said. “Chaz was here in the summer testing. He had great pace at the test and he’s continued it so we still have a bit ground to make up but I’m very happy with my side of the garage.

“We’ve done a great job and I think considering the amount of track time we’ve had – because we’ve basically had two hours – so to catch up everybody in two hours I think is impressive.

“Second position is acceptable today considering the championship points. Things went in my favour today and it just shows in racing anything is possible so I’m really happy with this but tomorrow is another day.

“I’d like to be closer to Chaz, ideally fighting for the victory with him, but looking at the monitors I think 10 seconds to find overnight is quite something so we’ll see.

“Tonight we need to try and find a few solutions, I struggled a little bit in some areas in that race but overall really happy, nice to be back after the summer and I think that was acceptable. I’m a bit disappointed in some areas but we’ll try again tomorrow.”