BMW Motorrad's Tom Sykes has increased his expectation for the remaining part of this year's WorldSBK championship, intending to continue his run of podium finishes until the last race at Losail.

Sykes tested well at Portimao and returns to the track this weekend with top three finishes across the board in mind as BMW's technical chief Marc Bongers revealed lots of S1000RR optimisation has gone on during the summer break.

“I am really looking forward to heading back to the Portimão circuit on the back of successful two days of testing there recently. During the test, we certainly gathered a lot of information for the set-up of the BMW S1000RR," said Sykes.

"Overall at the test, we tried various promises of the bike which we were not quite able to do so during the race weekends due to the restricted time. So this has proven very, very good.

"We got some positive results, so hopefully we can pick up where we left off and try to keep our run of podium places on the go. So the podium is certainly the target for the remaining races.”

Bongers added: "We are well equipped going into the final race weekends of the season. We have been able to optimise many areas of the BMW S1000RR and both riders were happy with what we achieved during the test.

"The races in Portimão mark the start of the final phase of our debut season with the new RR. The season was intended to be a year of learning, and we have already exceeded our expectations."