Former World Superbike Champion Tom Sykes says he needs to work on two vital areas ahead of tomorrow’s second race at Phillip Island if he is to challenge team-mate Jonathan Rea and the two works Ducatis.

Sykes led for four laps of today’s opening 22-lapper but was visibly struggling into Honda corner and says he was losing time in another area which meant that when he was shuffled back to fifth, he just didn’t have the pace to haul back all the lost time and space

“I had good pace initially but unfortunately I lost a little bit of track position to some other riders. That disturbed my rhythm a bit but we had good pace in the middle and at three quarters distance. Really, it was just on two corners on the track where we struggled and I was able to take an advantage in many areas but I lost it all in two vital areas of the racetrack,” said Sykes.

“I had to ride around this but on the plus side the gap to the front was smaller than we have had in the past here and we are improving the feeling all the time. I am not downbeat and it is a long season. Now we have another race tomorrow.”