With just one set of half-points awarded on a rain-affected World Superbike race day at Monza, the fourth round of 14 in the series, the overall standings look barely changed from that of the previous round at Assen.

Following the cancellation of race one and the early stop to race two, Tom Sykes emerged as the day’s top scorer, albeit with a relatively meagre 12.5 points to show for it.

Sykes was cruising to a dominant victory during the second Monza race as he put seconds per lap over the competition, but the arrival of rain after eight of the 16 laps forced organisers to deploy red flags and call the result.

A frustrating end to a chaotic day at Monza following the cancellation of the first race on safety grounds, there were fears the second race wouldn’t get underway either as riders returned from the warm-up feeling dissatisfied with the dry, albeit patchy, conditions.

After around 15mins of discussion, the race did eventually get underway, but without pole sitter Sylvain Guintoli who, along with Michel Fabrizio, would suffer cruel technical issues on the new warm-up lap to prevent them from starting.

Inheriting an effective pole position, Sykes stormed into the lead at the first turn and proceeded to scythe away from the opposition, the Briton’s margin growing by a second with every lap to leave the competition floundering in his wake.

However, with dark clouds looming overhead and threatening to deposit their contents on the Monza circuit, the inevitable eventually occurred on lap eight, organisers immediately waving the red flags to prevent any incident.

Coming after race one was cancelled due to the riders’ concerns over the sodden track surface and the quality of the wet Pirelli tyre around the high-speed circuit, just 8 laps and 14 minutes of Superbike racing would take place on the weekend the series celebrates its 25th anniversary.

With not enough of the race completed to award full points, Sykes instead only receives 12.5 points, rather than a full 25 points. Although it remains an impressive result for a rejuvenated Kawasaki, Sykes will rue the fact that he would have possibly stood to take the championship lead had the race gone full distance.

It was a frustrating outcome for a rider that could have left Monza with the championship lead had the race gone full distance and Max Biaggi stayed in his eventual fifth place, Sykes has at least closed the gap to the front runners to ensure just six points cover the top three ahead of his home event at Donington Park.

Biaggi still leads the way with 97.5 points, with Carlos Checa on 95.5 points, the Spaniard no doubt relieved to have barely lost any ground around a circuit that he feared would have dented his title hopes coming into the weekend.

Having starred on Saturday afternoon, cruel misfortune prevented Sylvain Guintoli from putting his pole position to good use, the Frenchman in turn losing out to Marco Melandri, Jonathan Rea and Leon Haslam in the standings to fall from fourth to seventh.

In the manufacturers’ standings, Ducati maintains a fairly comfortable lead over Aprilia in second place, while Kawasaki has edged ahead of BMW once again for third.

2012 World Superbike Championship rider standings

(After round 4 of 14, previous championship standing in brackets)

1. (1) Max Biaggi Aprilia Racing 97.5 points
2. (2) Carlos Checa Althea Ducati 95.5
3. (3) Tom Sykes Kawasaki Racing 91.5
4. (5) Marco Melandri BMW Motorrad 72.5
5. (6) Jonathan Rea Honda 70
6. (7) Leon Haslam BMW Motorrad 68
7. (4) Sylvain Guintoli Effenbert Liberty Ducati 66
8. (8) Eugene Laverty Aprilia Racing 64
9. (9) Jakub Smrz Liberty Effenbert Ducati 42.5
10. (10) Davide Giugliano Althea Ducati 41
11. (12) Maxime Berger Effenbert Liberty Ducati 26.5
12. (11) Michel Fabrizio BMW Italia GoldBet 26
13. (13) Hiroshi Aoyama Honda 24.5
14. (14) Lorenzo Zanetti PATA Ducati 21
15. (15) Niccolo Canepa Red Devils Roma Ducati 20
16. (16) Joan Lascorz Kawasaki Racing 17
17. (17) Leon Camier Crescent Fixi Suzuki 14.5
18. (18) Ayrton Badovini BMW Italia GoldBet 14
19. (19) Leandro Mercado Pedercini Kawasaki 9
20. (20) David Salom Pedercini Kawasaki 9
21. (21) John Hopkins Crescent Fixi Suzuki 8
22. (22) Bryan Staring Pedercini Kawasaki 6
23. (23) Chaz Davies ParkinGO MTC Aprilia 4
24. (24) Josh Brookes Crescent Fixi Suzuki 1
25. (25) Mark Aitchison Grillini Progea BMW 1