The Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya in Spain is staging the fourth round of the Superbike World Championship, in which Kawasaki Puccetti Racing is racing with English rider Tom Sykes. In yesterday’s two free practice sessions, Sykes placed twenty-fourth with a time of 1’44”486, while this morning he finished the third and final practice twenty-third, with a best of 1’43”813.
In the late morning Tom competed in Superpole, improving further on his time to set a 1’42”608 and qualify twenty-second. Sykes therefore got away from the eighth row of the grid for the afternoon’s race, which ran in hot and sunny conditions.
The British rider didn’t make the fastest start, but the race was brought to a halt with a red flag already on lap four due to a crash. The race was restarted but reduced to 17 laps. After making a good start, Tom was able to maintain a good pace, ultimately crossing the line seventeenth, not far from the points zone.
Tomorrow Sykes will compete in the Superpole Race followed by Race 2.
Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya – Spain – Superbike World Championship
Combined free practice results: 1) Bautista (Ducati) – 2) Locatelli (Yamaha) – 3) Rinaldi (Ducati) – 4) Gerloff (BMW) – 5) Rea (Kawasaki) – 6) Vierge (Honda) ……. 23) Sykes (Kawasaki)
Superpole: 1) Bautista (Ducati) – 2) Aegerter (Yamaha) – 3) Rea (Kawasaki) – 4) Rinaldi (Ducati) – 5) Lecuona (Honda) – 6) Lowes (Kawasaki) ……. 20) Sykes (Kawasaki)
Race 1: 1) Bautista (Ducati) – 2) Razgatlioglu (Yamaha) – 3) Rea (Kawasaki) – 4) Locatelli (Yamaha) – 5) Aegerter (Yamaha) – 6) Lecuona (Honda) ….. 17) Sykes (Kawasaki)
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“Today’s race was quite eventful with a couple of crashes and a red flag, so I hope everyone’s OK after that. We had a few issues when the race first got going so when it restarted we took a gamble with the rear tyre, one that unfortunately didn’t pay off. We tried our best and now, on the back of that information, we’ll look to make some changes for tomorrow so that we have a better package for the shorter sprint race.”
