Kawasaki’s Tom Sykes cited a lack of confidence on the brakes as the reason why he got stuck in the pack during the second WorldSBK race at Lausitz and could do nothing as team-mate Jonathan Rea carved his way to third from eighth in one lap.

The Huddersfield rider always struggles more than Rea or Ducati’s Chaz Davies in the reverse-grid second race, and it was the case again in Germany when he didn’t see any clear track until lap 14 and by then, Rea, Davies and Marco Melandri had left the building. Sykes finished 14 seconds behind eventual winner Davies.

“I had a good start, the first sector wasn’t good, I got pushed out by a couple of guys and lost track position. The big issue was I didn’t have the confidence to pass some riders on the brakes, I struggled and didn’t feel like I had a good setup for passing,” said Sykes, speaking at the track.

“When I did get past, the laptimes came good again and were competitive. It’s something we need to improve because when I was fighting, lacking that confidence to enter the turn and make a clean pass wasn’t on the cards. We don’t want to get caught out like that again, we lost a lot of points today.”