Kawasaki’s Tom Sykes struggled with edge grip in the second World Superbike race at Laguna so dropped his laptimes to ride defensively for the win in California.

The Huddersfield man, who will partner Jonathan Rea for the next two years, held off the Ducatis of Chaz Davies and Davide Giugliano to bring down Rea lead to less than two race wins as they head into the summer break.

“I had a lot of pressure from the Ducati riders all race long. We struggled with edge grip today so I had to change my style a little bit to defend my line. It destroyed the lap time but gave us the 25 points. Overall, it was good race for the spectators and a close one between three riders,” said Sykes.

“I am happy enough but it was a difficult race in some ways. The restart was one more thing to think about and we made some changes, making the best of the situation. We never had the perfect set-up but I feel we made a good compromise. We have made a good weekend, with pole position, a second place and a win. We will go into the summer break on a high and try to learn from the information we took from the previous Misano round and this one, and then try to put the jigsaw together for the last part of the season.”

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