Tom Sykes (Kawasaki Racing Team) scored his third double race win of the season at Magny Cours today and in doing so took a strong 37 point lead with only one round of the championship remaining.

In the first race Sykes was not seriously threatened after he headed off into the lead at lap record pace, taking a new best lap in race conditions of 1’38.345. He would go on and beat in an even more impressive race two performance.

In the opening race, scheduled for 23 laps, Tom had a two second advantage over Sylvain Guintoli as the laps timed down. When a red flag was shown to halt the race because of a bike laying on track on fire, Sykes was declared the winner and, as enough laps had been completed to call it a full result, he was awarded full points.

The second race also did not quite go the full distance and when rains started towards the end, two riders crashed behind Tom. A red flag was shown to halt proceedings again and this time Sykes was 11.091 seconds ahead in the final race results.

On lap four of race two Tom set a final new lap record, 1’37.932. This was Tom’s ninth race win of 2013, the 14th of his career.

David Salom (Kawasaki Racing Team) had a tough weekend in some regards as a stand in for team regular Loris Baz, falling three times. He also scored points, however, with two eleventh places on raceday - a good effort from rider and team given that bad weather had robbed them of some clear track time in practice.

Kawasaki Team Pedercini rider Federico Sandi was 12th in race one, and 13th in race two, with Mark Aitchison having a big highside crash in race one but finishing race two in 12th place.

A Superstock 1000 FIM Cup race win for Jeremy Guarnoni (MRS Kawasaki) was a hometown victory on his Ninja ZX-10R. The race was stopped for a red flag and reduced to an eventual nine laps, which Guarnoni eventually dominated. Lorenzo Savadori (Kawasaki Team Pedercini) was third. Leandro Mercado (Kawasaki Team Pedercini) placed fifth in the race.

Tom Sykes:

“It is great to score a double win here and we made two small changes in the bike to race two. We are always chasing perfection. That is what we spend our lives doing. When you are on the edge all the time you have got very small changes that make a big outcome. The bike was very nice to ride today and the races went very well. When the circuit and conditions suit a bike and rider you have to take the most advantage from it. Magny Cours was generous to me, the bike and all at Kawasaki, so this was great. It was spitting with rain at the end of race two and that was difficult to manage, even though I had a big gap and not much pressure. I was sliding the rear a lot. We still have some work to do but the good thing is that we have been there or thereabouts all season.”

David Salom:

“It ended up a hard weekend. The team worked very hard for me after three crashes but with 11th position in each race I am happy in one way, happy with progress in the second race being faster than the first race. With three crashes it was difficult. I am sorry for that but happy that we made progress. I think it was possible for me to finish better, if I had been riding a Superbike all season. I am sure it would have been a little bit better that way.”

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