It was a case of what might have been for the Kawasaki Superbike Racing Team in round three of the World Superbike Championship which took place at Assen this weekend whereby none of the team's three riders could manage a top ten placing between them.

Despite a promising qualifying session which saw British rider Tom Sykes grab a row two start on the Paul Bird Motorsport Kawasaki Ninja ZX-10R after Superpole, Spanish team-mate Joan Lascorz slotted in on row three with Aussie Chris Vermeulen still struggling with injury to claim a row five start.

With high expectations for good results around the Dutch track, and a confident set-up, both Sykes and Lascorz ran strongly in the early stages of race one with Sykes up to third at one point and Lascorz also well placed until he was forced off track when Leon Haslam crashed.

However, after around seven laps, Sykes started to fall back due to tyre problems with Lascorz also suffering from the same issues and at the end of the 22-lap race around the 4.542km circuit, Lascorz could only manage an 11th place finish with Sykes being able to do no better than 14th. To pile even more misery on the Penrith-based team, Vermeulen retired after only eight laps.

For race two, the team went with a harder option tyre in the hope of lasting the race distance but the pace of race two was much faster and Sykes had to settle for a disappointing 11th place with Lascorz following him over the line in 12th after Vermeulen didn't start the race.

The results leave Sykes and Lascorz tied on 26 points in 11th place in the title race and needing an improved performance at the next round which takes place in Monza on May 8th.

Tom Sykes:

"I was really confident going into today's races and we had chosen a set-up and tyre which we felt confident with and I was really comfortable running up front with the leaders. Then the grip levels started to disappear and it was a case of just trying to bring the bike home so for race two, we tried a few different things but it wasn't our weekend. We need to put these results behind us and look to a significant improvement at Monza."

Joan Lascorz:

"In race one, I felt I had the pace but it was unfortunate that I got tangled up with Haslam's crash and from then onwards I had to concentrate on fighting for the best position I could. In race two, we tried some changes and it was better but I'm disappointed with the results this weekend."

Paul Bird, Team Owner:

"It goes without saying I'm not happy with our performance this weekend and we are looking at what went wrong. We need to learn from our mistakes and put it right as it's one of the most disappointing weekends we have had in a long time. We aim to make some major changes in time for Monza whereby I'm hoping for a vast improvement in the results all round."