Tom Sykes says he fears missing out on second place in the championship after watching rival Chaz Davies take another convincing World Superbike race win in Jerez today.

The 2013 champion says he and his Kawasaki Racing Team crew need to make some big inroads in a test this week if they’re to avoid slipping back to third at the final round in two weeks’ time.

Sykes finished third behind team-mate Jonathan Rea in today’s race, as Davies romped to a victory of more than five seconds, and the Yorkshireman admits he is concerned about the pace of his Ducati rival, who is now just 19 points behind him.

“What can I say? That’s the best we could manage,” he said . “When I was behind Jonathan, when the pace slowed up I was really struggling in some areas, trying really hard to adapt to the way he was riding and it just didn’t work.

“In the end I was able to bring it quite, well very close, but not enough. We’re struggling at this present time and Chaz is obviously on the opposite end of the scale so we need to really pay attention, I don’t want to lose second place in the championship if we can help it.

“Tomorrow we have an important test, we need to try and utilise this test in a good way. I think it was about six seconds that Chaz won today, he’s beginning to stamp his authority in the dry now, and I think it just shows the level of where they’re at this moment.”

Now 48 points adrift of his team-mates, Sykes admits it’s all but over. “Even if it was 40 points we’d be pretty much done, the fact of it being 40 or 48 is quite irrelevant when there’s 50 still to play.

“But, I think the fact we’re taking it to the final race compared to last year is quite good. We have to be looking on the positive side, we have to take this as a positive and be happy with it and learn from it.”