Tom Sykes secured a third place finish in race one at Imola and added to his fifth place in race two he is now second in the championship. Loris Baz took two fourth place finishes at Imola and the French rider is now fourth overall, only 20 points from the new leader. David Salom (KRT SBK Evo) leads again in the Evo championship category after finishing overall 12th and 13th in the overall Superbike classifications.

In the first 19-lap race at the 4.936km long Autodromo Internazionale Enzo e Dino Ferrari circuit Sykes was a clear third, taking his fifth podium of the season in the process.

Sykes was unable to push as he felt he could, however, especially in the later part of the second race and after seeing a safe opportunity to pass his KRT team-mate Baz swept past and held onto his narrow advantage to take fourth place for the second time.

The championship is a tight affair now after four rounds and eight individual races, with Tom second on 135 points, Loris fourth on 119, but only 20 points separating the ‘big four’ at the top of the table.

In the Manufacturers’ Standings Kawasaki is in the lead by four points, and in the Teams’ Standings KRT is on top also, well ahead of the next best challengers after the great pace and consistency shown by both Loris and Tom all season.

David Salom (KRT SBK Evo) is now six points in the lead of the Evo standings, having scored consistently strong points despite carrying a hand injury with him for much of the year.

Donington Park in the UK hosts the next round of the SBK series, on Sunday 25th May.


Tom Sykes:

“This weekend there is no question we missed some of our true performance and we were not quite on the money. I do not think we realised that the gap was as big as it proved to be. In each race we had some limitations and unfortunately at this level you cannot ride around them and make a good result. We will learn from this, that is for sure. It has not been the easiest weekend but you cannot have a perfect weekend every time. Now we can move on and we have some good circuits coming up for us.”

Loris Baz:

“I did not expect so much for the races after Friday but we changed the bike and found good things, so we started to be more confident. This morning in warm-up I felt really fast. Race one was good but I was struggling a little bit on the corner exits so I was losing ten meters. I was always too far behind to overtake anybody at the next corner. In the second race we made a little change and improved our set-up, and I was trying to control the race. I lost 1.7 seconds in one lap behind Davide Giugliano when he had a problem. Tom and Chaz overtook him really fast. I had to wait for a time but I feel I could have finished maybe third. I am still happy with the fourth places today and there are four people within 20 points in the title race, so it is very close. We are doing well in the team championship too. Anything can happen now and our tracks will come!”

David Salom:

“I am leading the championship on the Evo class again and this is very good for our team and Kawasaki. They were two difficult races for me because I did not have much force in my hand. It is difficult at this track because of the hard braking in many places and it was not possible for me to push more than this. The bike was good and I had just a bit of chatter from the front end. The chassis and engine worked well and we had a good raceday.”

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