Having enjoyed a productive Saturday at the Lausitzring with a second place result - which saw him temporarily reduce the gap at the top of the standings to 26 points to his KRT teammate Jonathan Rea – things did not go so well for Tom Sykes on Sunday.

The roles were reversed with Sykes this time being the rider to crash, whilst Rea won the race to take back the momentum in the title fight after two successive DNF results for the Northern Irishman.

Unlike Rea on Saturday Yorkshireman Sykes was able to pick his Kawasaki ZX-10R up after a crash in Race 2 but finishing outside the top ten saw him slip back to 47 points behind his colleague and rival in the championship.

At the conclusion of the #GermanWorldSBK round Sykes stated, “I think it was probably a rider issue for my crash, as the bike set-up was not working well and I think I overstepped the mark in the first race. We need to find a small set-up improvement in the dry but much more in the wet. That is not so good in one respect but I also know I can win races in the wet. It is just finding the correct balance and feedback for the rider and at this moment I do not have it in those conditions. I am sure we can find it.”

“In racing everything is possible and everything turns on its head so fast. Yesterday I was 26 points from the lead and today 47. The positive is that over the last three races the points gap is now at 47 but three races ago it was at 71. We still have three rounds remaining.”