Weather conditions, tyre choices and pit stop tactics all played a part in Saturday’s Race 1 at Magny-Cours as KRT riders Tom Sykes and Jonathan Rea both registered important points in the tricky conditions in France, finishing third and fourth respectively.

Tissot-Superpole winner Rea and second fastest qualifier Sykes both started out on full wet tyre options at the start of the race but changed them after making a pit stop as conditions improved. Sykes took on slick tyres and almost took second place as a result, on the very last lap. Rea earned fourth place on a set of intermediate tyres.

In the championship points tally Rea still has a commanding lead in first place with a total of 406 points, whilst Sykes is 44 behind on 362.

After a busy day of action on Saturday Sykes commented: “It was wet and we had already had a problem in the last race in Germany so to finish was important. I almost came in two laps earlier for the slick tyre but it was still quite dangerous on the slick with the three left-handers, so that almost caught me out.”

He continued, “I think we did a good race considering the pit-stop and just unfortunately maybe the calculations weren’t spot on. It was definitely a good comeback through the field and the lap times were starting to become really, really competitive compared to the other guys. We just ran out of time but that’s racing. I’m grateful to be on the podium in such tricky conditions which could easily have gone another way. So this is good but tomorrow hopefully it is fully dry and we can try to improve the result.”

Meanwhile, Rea stated: “It was a race of strategy and unfortunately we were not on the winning one. The bike was working OK and in the first part of the race I was patient, just marking time behind Tom. Our main opposition right now is Tom so when he was on rain tyres it made the decision of when to come into the pits much easier.”

“I am just a little bit disappointed in myself for not being clear to ask for slick tyres at the pit stop. I did not have complete confidence and I expected the intermediate would last much longer, as the track was taking a long time to dry. When I saw that he had exited from the pit stop with slick tyres it was very difficult to find the same edge grip as the slick tyres had. All in all, I am happy, because we made some mistakes today but we finished fourth in the race and did not lose too many points. Being the championship leader we had to adopt the more conservative option today, rather than the more aggressive one.”