Britain’s Tom Sykes took his Kawasaki to extend his World Superbike Championships lead at Portimao, in Portugal, round eight of 13 at the weekend.

Sykes has boosted his lead to 43 points after a seventh win of the season in race one allowed him the luxury to play it safe in a sodden second race.

Armed with a healthy 39 point advantage coming to Portugal, though Sykes – starting from his 22nd career WSBK pole position – didn’t get the best of getaways in the first race to round the first lap in third position, he would progress into lead by lap four and wouldn’t be headed thereafter.

Indeed, though drizzle mid-way through the race threatened to question his desire to push on having established a three second lead, the conditions would clear in time for him to cling onto his 21st career WSBK win.

“I enjoy winning races and the good thing is that the Ninja ZX-10R is giving me the feedback to be able to do this so I am very happy at the moment,” he said. “I had a poor start in race one and it is a long race round here, long enough race to make some corrections. I am happy because we had a good gap then the rain started to come.

“When you are leading the championship and leading the race you do not want to do anything stupid and it was very difficult to calculate the levels of grip because in some parts of the circuit it was raining more heavily than in others. The team gave me great pit board signals and luckily the cloud disappeared with a good amount of laps left, to go so I could take an advantage again.”

Faced with far wetter conditions in race two, Sykes held down second place in the early stages, but with his rivals reeling him in as they tripped over one another in their own private battle, Sykes opted to ease off and focus on scoring points in eighth instead.

“In the wet conditions of race two we had some issues but I cannot be disappointed because we have shown great potential. Sometimes we are dealt these strange races and there was too much for me to lose today. Some other riders made mistakes and so I extended my championship lead compared to when we arrived here.”

The result also lifts Sykes level with Max Biaggi – who beat him to the 2012 WSBK title by 0.5 points – in terms of WSBK wins, his 21st success placing him ninth on the all-time list.

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Results from Portugal:

RACE ONE:

1. Tom Sykes GBR Kawasaki Racing ZX-10R 20 laps
2. Sylvain Guintoli FRA Aprilia Racing RSV4 +2.539s
3. Loris Baz FRA Kawasaki Racing ZX-10R +3.175s
4. Marco Melandri ITA Aprilia Racing RSV4 +4.042s
5. Jonathan Rea GBR PATA Honda CBR1000RR +7.791s
6. Alex Lowes GBR Voltcom Crescent Suzuki GSX-R1000 +14.772s
7. Davide Giugliano ITA Ducati SBK 1199 Panigale R +14.877s
8. Eugene Laverty IRL Voltcom Crescent Suzuki GSX-R1000 +14.941s
9. David Salom ESP Kawasaki Racing ZX-10R +26.018s (E)
10. Sylvain Barrier FRA BMW Italia S1000RR +26.032s (E)
11. Leon Haslam GBR PATA Honda CBR1000RR +33.041s
12. Jeremy Guarnoni FRA MRS Kawasaki ZX-10R +38.385s (E)
13. Niccolo Canepa ITA Althea Ducati 1199 Panigale R +42.237s (E)
14. Riccardo Russo ITA Pedercini Kawasaki ZX-10R +47.908s (E)
15. Alessandro Andreozzi ITA Pedercini Kawasaki ZX-10R +1m 03.502s (E)

16. Aaron Yates USA Team Hero EBR 1190RX +1 lap
17. Gabor Rizmayer HUN Team Toth BMW S1000RR +1 lap

Ayrton Badovini ITA Bimota Alstare BB3 (E) *
Christian Iddon GBR Bimota Alstare BB3 (E) *

* Ineligible to score points, removed from results (Badovini across the line 12th, Iddon 13th)

Not Classified

18. Chaz Davies GBR Ducati SBK 1199 Panigale R 13 laps completed
19. Peter Sebestyen HUN Team Toth BMW S1000RR 13 laps completed (E)
20. Bryan Staring AUS IRON BRAIN Kawasaki ZX-10R 8 laps completed (E)
21. Sheridan Morais RSA IRON BRAIN Kawasaki ZX-10R 6 laps completed (E)
22. Toni Elias ESP Red Devils Roma Aprilia RSV4 5 laps completed
23. Fabien Foret FRA MAHI Kawasaki ZX-10R 5 laps completed (E)
24. Geoff May USA Team Hero EBR 1190RX 4 laps completed

Did Not Start

Claudio Corti ITA MV Agusta RC F4RR

RACE TWO:

1. Jonathan Rea GBR PATA Honda CBR1000RR 18 laps
2. Davide Giugliano ITA Ducati SBK 1199 Panigale R +6.817s
3. Chaz Davies GBR Ducati SBK 1199 Panigale R +8.676s
4. Alex Lowes GBR Voltcom Crescent Suzuki GSX-R1000 +9.740s
5. Leon Haslam GBR PATA Honda CBR1000RR +11.289s
6. Loris Baz FRA Kawasaki Racing ZX-10R +11.808s
7. Sylvain Guintoli FRA Aprilia Racing RSV4 +14.169s
8. Tom Sykes GBR Kawasaki Racing ZX-10R +17.164s
9. Eugene Laverty IRL Voltcom Crescent Suzuki GSX-R1000 +26.406s
10. Toni Elias ESP Red Devils Roma Aprilia RSV4 +30.168s
11. Sylvain Barrier FRA BMW Italia S1000RR +41.820s (E)
12. Sheridan Morais RSA IRON BRAIN Kawasaki ZX-10R +47.434s (E)
13. Jeremy Guarnoni FRA MRS Kawasaki ZX-10R +50.045s (E)
14. Bryan Staring AUS IRON BRAIN Kawasaki ZX-10R +1m 17.436s (E)
15. Riccardo Russo ITA Pedercini Kawasaki ZX-10R +1m 24.500s (E)

16. Alessandro Andreozzi ITA Pedercini Kawasaki ZX-10R +1m 30.563s (E)
17. David Salom ESP Kawasaki Racing ZX-10R +1m 34.242s (E)
18. Niccolo Canepa ITA Althea Ducati 1199 Panigale R +1m 34.647s (E)
19. Gabor Rizmayer HUN Team Toth BMW S1000RR +1m 47.422s

Ayrton Badovini ITA Bimota Alstare BB3 (E) *
Christian Iddon GBR Bimota Alstare BB3 (E) *

* Ineligible to score points, removed from results (Badovini across the line 9th, Iddon 12th)

Not Classified

20. Marco Melandri ITA Aprilia Racing RSV4 12 laps completed
21. Geoff May USA Team Hero EBR 1190RX 7 laps completed
22. Aaron Yates USA Team Hero EBR 1190RX 0 laps completed

Did Not Start

Peter Sebestyen HUN Team Toth BMW S1000RR (E)
Fabien Foret FRA MAHI Kawasaki ZX-10R (E)
Claudio Corti ITA MV Agusta RC F4RR

 

Standings after round eight of 13:

 

1	Tom Sykes	Kawasaki Racing Team	284
2	Sylvain Guintoli	Aprilia Racing	241
3	Loris Baz	Kawasaki Racing Team	236
4	Jonathan Rea	PATA Honda	235
5	Marco Melandri	Aprilia Racing	192
6	Chaz Davies	Ducati SBK	159
7	Eugene Laverty	Voltcom Crescent Suzuki	121
8	Leon Haslam	PATA Honda	115
9	Toni Elias	Red Devils Roma Aprilia	115
10	Alex Lowes	Voltcom Crescent Suzuki	111
11	David Salom	Kawasaki Racing Team (E)	74
12	Niccolo Canepa	Althea Ducati (E)	46
13	Leon Camier	BMW Italia (E)	30
14	Jeremy Guarnoni	MRS Kawasaki (E)	26
15	Sylvain Barrier	BMW Italia (E)	17
16	Luca Scassa	Pedercini Kawasaki (E)	16
17	Sheridan Morais	IRON BRAIN Grillini Kawasaki (E)	14
18	Fabien Foret	MAHI India Kawasaki (E)	14
19	Davide Giugliano	Ducati SBK	14
20	Claudio Corti	MV Agusta Reparto Corse	13
21	Alessandro Andreozzi	Pedercini Kawasaki (E)	10
22	Glenn Allerton	BMW Italia SBK (E)	6
23	Bryan Staring	IRON BRAIN Grillini Kawasaki (E)	5
24	Kervin Bos	Winterb Honda CBR1000RR (E)	5
25	Ivan Goi	Barni Ducati (E)	5
26	Riccardo Russo	Pedercini Kawasaki (E)	5
27	Michel Fabrizio	IRON BRAIN Grillini Kawasaki (E)	2
28	Imre Toth	BMW Team Toth	2
29	Romain Lanusse	Pedercini Kawasaki (E)	1