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Donington WSBK: Rea settles for second at ’Sykes track’

Reigning World Superbike Champion Jonathan Rea has pulled his points lead out to 56 after having to settle for second behind Kawasaki team-mate Tom Sykes as he took a fourth successive double win at the Leicestershire track.

Rea was able to stick close to Sykes for a majority of the race but a big slide at Schwantz, a false neutral and some arm pump meant he had to give best to the Huddersfield rider.

“We can call Donington Tom Sykes’ track after so many race wins. To be so close to him at a track he is so strong at is good. Clearly, he is riding really well right now so I am happy with that. I am happy to put a big margin on the championship lead as well, which is the priority. It would have been nice to cap it off with a race win as my bike felt really good in race two but in the end, I suffered a little bit with arm pump in my right arm, so that was a little frustrating as your mind wants to do one thing but your body isn’t letting you be precise on the brake and the gas, and I’m in pain right now,” Rea told bikesportnews.com at the track.

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“I got another neutral just as I made my pass. I’m a little bit frustrated with that. At the end of the race, I didn’t have much for Tom. My bike was working well, so I’d like to thank the team as they are trying to make the bike really suited to me and it seems we are getting there now. In the last races we have defined the engine character that we like and a balance that seems to be working.

“From track to track we will made adjustments according to temperature and whatever the track requests, but this weekend was one of the first I have started to feel rally good on the bike, I can do what I want with it. The start of the year we have been testing a lot, making really big changes between races but this weekend we started the weekend with a balance more like we had in 2015 and I was happy. We have only made small changes.”

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