After pole position and a podium finish on Saturday, Sunday’s action in the FIM Superbike World Championship (WorldSBK) at Donington Park (GBR) did not go according to plan for the BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team. In the Superpole race, unfortunate circumstances saw BMW S 1000 RR rider Tom Sykes (GBR) end up with a DNF instead of finishing in second on the podium. In the main race of the afternoon, a catch-up race saw him finish in seventh place. Peter Hickman (GBR) retired in the morning due to a technical defect, he finished eleventh in the afternoon.
Sykes started the morning’s Superpole sprint race from pole position. He was embroiled in a close duel for the lead with Jonathan Rea (GBR / Kawasaki) and was at the front of the field for four laps. Rea overtook him, but Sykes was hot on the heels of his rival in second place. With three laps to go, a technical defect meant Hickman lost oil, several riders fell as a result, and the race was aborted. After the race was red flagged and the field headed back to the pits, the oil slick also sent Sykes skidding into the gravel. Second place was taken away from him and he was classified as not having finished the race.
This meant Sykes had to start the second main race of the afternoon from tenth on the grid. With a plucky catch-up race, he moved up into seventh. Hickman started from eleventh on the grid and briefly dropped down one place, but was back in eleventh after the second lap, where he remained until the end of the race. Hickman stepped in for Markus Reiterberger (GER) at Donington Park, who was unable to compete after contracting a severe viral infection. Reiterberger will return to action in the next round this coming weekend at Laguna Seca (USA).
