SBK, Sykes shoots down Badovini: "he was stupid"

Tom Sykes was fairly pleased with third place, after having just missed out on a podium finish to Marco Melandri on Saturday.

The Kawasaki #66 rider started from pole and led the race for as long as he could: “what can I say? Congrats to Davies, he was unstoppable for us today -  admitted Tom- but I tried, starting out strong, because I knew Chaz and Johnny were very fast. I couldn't ride using my usual technique, except for on my last lap, in fact my lap time came down”.

We saw your rear Pirelli sliding and smoking…

“Third was the most we could do today at Imola, we improved the Ninja over the weekend, for the next races we needed to take a bigger step. Today the rear tyre was smoking a lot, I struggled through the turns and couldn't exploit the front”.

Sykes was not happy with Badovini after his engine failure led to a red flag: “today Badovini was stupid; he knew that the engine of his ZX10R was braking but instead of moving to the side, he stayed in the middle of the track. I'm really annoyed because he's an experienced rider, but he caused problems for other riders here on the very first lap”.

Jonathan Rea had to settle again today too, another second place for the two-time World Champion, behind his toughest rival, Chaz Davies.

Johnny did his best to win, but it just wasn't possible at Imola for him and his very fast (and full factory) Ninja ZX10RR: “I'm pleased with how we've gone here to be honest - because two second places is a great result, considering our history at this track. Now I have a 74-point lead”.

What tyres did you use today?

“During warm-up, we changed a few things on the bike; I also used a new soft front tyre for the race that had positives and negatives; from mid-race on, the tyres was suffering at the sides, because it was too soft for the temperatures”.

What was the key moment?

“I made a mistake at the Variante Alta: I got the braking wrong, I was in the wrong gear. As a result, I lost acceleration on the exit, letting those behind me pass. I didn't want to skip the chicane as I knew they'd give me a ride through. I made up positions through the next laps but it was impossible to reach Davies”.