SBK, Sykes King of Donington, DNF for Rea

When the Superbikes come to Donington, the most "British" of all the English circuits perhaps, everyone expects Tom Sykes to win, and that's just what he did again today.

In 2008 a young Sykes scored his first world championship podium, while competing as a wildcard with a Suzuki GSX-R 1000 and, since becoming a permanent fixture in this series, the 2013 world champion has bow won at the Derbyshire track on 9 consecutive occasions, scoring his first win of the 2017 season: “I was racing against the wind and with my thoughts on Nicky Hayden -he commented - I was able to win a tough race and I don't want to think about tomorrow right now”.

Up to about mid race, it looked like Davies could win, but a crash at the penultimate corner interrupted his race. The Ducati rider was able to continue and worked his way back up the field from 17th to final 8th place. Another opportunity wasted considering Rea's DNF.

A heavy zero for Rea, not so much for the standings, but for morale: having dealt with Sykes' attack, the Northern Irish rider started to lose ground before crashing violently: he ran to his bike and looked closely at the rear wheel: the tyre was hanging off the wheel, either due to a puncture or loss of pressure.

A great race and second place on the podium for Leon Haslam, wildcarding with the Kawasaki Ninja: Leon has a riding school at this track with father Ron and knows it inside out; a great gift for Manuel Puccetti, who celebrates his birthday today and arranged Leon's wildcard appearance. Alex Lowes also gave his team a wonderful present, bringing his R1 to the third step of the rostrum, his first podium of 2017.

Melandri closed in fourth place today, ahead of Van Der Mark with the second R1. Leon Camier and the MV Agusta  concluded sixth, following by Argentinian rider Mercado, the first Aprilia RSV4 rider to cross the line, with the two Milwaukee men Savadori and Laverty finishing well back, then Torres, Fores and Ramos. One point for Raffaele De Rosa and his BMW, a DNF for Stefan Bradl, though today the Honda Ten Kate garage surely had other things on their mind...

Championship standings: Rea 235, Sykes 185, Davies 169