The 2013 World Champion Tom Sykes had a solid weekend at the Chang International Circuit, registering two podium results in the sweltering heat.

Sykes used his race craft for late moves on Marco Melandri (Aruba.it Racing - Ducati) in both races at the Motul Thai Round, overtaking the Italian for third place at the end of Race 1 and then repeating the trick to beat the Italian to second in Race 2.

The results see Sykes in third place after four races of the 2017 MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship, 38 points behind his KRT colleague Jonathan Rea who leads the standings and eight points behind second placed Chaz Davies (Aruba.it Racing - Ducati).

Reflecting on his position after Round Two in Thailand, Sykes stated, “In winter testing I have been working really hard just to try to get closer to what the bike needs. Obviously that is something I came to accept last year and at Phillip Island we showed some signs of consistency. Then again here, the race itself is consistently quick enough and especially on my last lap. I think that might have been the fastest lap of my race. I’m really just trying to understand the bike and evaluate where I can adjust myself to let the bike work more easily.”

Reviewing Sunday’s race in more detail he added: “The race win was not on but second place was, so it was all about making the smartest move possible at the end. I could see Marco had some limitations so on the last lap I knew I had a margin. He was faster than me in the twisty section before the last corner so I had to put the lap together.”

“Finally on the last lap on my dashboard there was 1’33.7, which was the fastest of my whole race. We still have to find a little bit more from our package. I am slowly getting there and consistency has pretty much been there. We keep closing the gap but we need to try and close it a bit faster.”