Tom Sykes put in the Kawasaki Racing Team’s best qualifying performance of the season today by going seventh on the grid. Stand-in rider Ian Lowry continued to impress and made it into Superpole.

Sykes was in sparkling form on his Ninja ZX-10R in Superpole qualifying, using his tyres to the best advantage to go from 16th after regulation qualifying to eighth in the provisional Superpole rankings - then being moved up one place to seventh on the official time sheets when James Toseland was demoted from third to eighth for starting the Superpole Three session too early.

Dry weather assisted all the riders to find a good set-up at the modern version of the classic German circuit, with Sykes keeping his very best efforts for when it mattered most, in Superpole. Pole position itself was taken by Max Biaggi, the championship leader.

A potential baptism of WSBK fire for Ian Lowry, standing in for the injured Chris Vermeulen, proved to be well managed by both the rider and his experienced team. Ian qualified 19th on the grid, with three riders behind him during his rookie Superbike weekend.

Sunday’s pair of 20-lap races will comprise round 11 of the championship, with only two more left after the WSBK circus leaves Germany.


Tom Sykes:

“Obviously we are very happy with the way we have been working this weekend, Kawasaki and all the boys in the team. We have an optimum setting and some kind of balance from Brands Hatch, when we raced there in BSB, and we have been able to come here and make fine tweaks, not big changes. Overall the bike has been easier to find set-up with, more consistent in feel for myself and it showed in qualifying. I am relatively happy with my race pace and I just want to get away cleanly early on in the race and get stuck in.”

Ian Lowry:

“I was faster and feel more comfortable on race tyres than I was on the qualifiers, so I didn’t gain anything from them. It is just like learning the track and the bike all over again when you use them, and concentrating on exit speed rather than entry speed. I need to find about 0.6 of a second now and if I can do that I feel I will be able to stick on the back of a good group in the early laps. If I can do that I know I can race with them. I took a second off yesterday’s time so I need to continue that trend. Every time I go out on the bike I am learning something but it is brilliant to be out on track with some of these guys. Overall I am very pleased and the team is happy enough too, which is the main thing.”