Sykes Day 1 (2)
** Racing Team) set a 1'30.278 lap-time to finish on top, with a big margin (1.282 seconds) over 2nd place Jonathan Rea (Pata Honda World Superbike). Sykes has made the difference at Donington Park today, as the remaining 9 to complete the top-10 finished within a second of each other.
His encouraging start of the weekend was hampered by a late crash at Turn 4 that damaged his Ninja ZX-10R, but the works Kawasaki rider walked away from the gravel uninjured. A Few seconds before Frenchman Jules Cluzel (FIXI Crescent Suzuki) lost control of his GSX-R1000 at the exact same spot.
Marco Melandri kept his momentum up after Monza's success by finishing 3rd, followed by Aprilia duo of Sylvain Guintoli and Davide Giugliano, Leon Camier placed Michel Fabrizio. Melandri's team mate Chaz Davies was 8th ahead of works Aprilia rider Eugene Laverty.
