In a wet second WorldSBK race at Sepang Kawasaki Racing Team rider Tom Sykes found the going harder than on Saturday in the difficult conditions and finished eighth. He remains third in the overall championship standings.

With no previous wet experience to call on at the resurfaced Sepang circuit the riders had little time to find a good set-up on full wet tyres. Starting from pole Sykes went in search of more podium success.

Soon after the start, however, he realised his set-up was not going to allow him to challenge and despite fighting for every point he dropped back to finish eighth, on a drying track surface that made his set-up issues more profound.

Sykes is still 62 points ahead of the fourth placed rider in the championship and leaves Sepang with another race win on his record thanks to his Saturday performance.

He stated: “It was a big shame after the strong run we have had over the other parts of race weekend. I looked at a small change for the dry conditions today but heading into the wet we took on some experience from the Assen weekend and then went racing. But when the water cleared the grip from the surface was quite high.”

“Unfortunately we did not have the perfect set-up for the grippy surface. I was not able to push the tyres onto the ground and get the traction we needed. Other than that, I felt if we would have made some changes we could have been stronger. I am disappointed not to capitalise on our momentum from yesterday’s win, but this is racing sometimes.”