It was the homecoming that Tom Sykes (BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team) would have dreamed about as the MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship returned to Donington Park and the British rider secured his first two podiums of the season, his first since 2019 and his first consecutive podiums since 2018 at the Prosecco DOC UK Round.

Sykes had shown strong pace all weekend despite a crash on Friday at his home round and converted this into a front row start with third place in the Tissot Superpole session, although he was out qualified by teammate Michael van der Mark for the first time in the 2021 campaign.

Sykes claimed fourth place in Race 1, ahead of van der Mark in fifth, with Sykes missing out on a podium in the opening race of the weekend by just over two seconds. In the Tissot Superpole Race, Sykes and van der Mark switched around from their starting positions but both finished on the podium with Sykes second and van der Mark third and in Race 2, Sykes was able to bring his BMW M 1000 RR machine onto the podium with third place, just over two seconds back from Garrett Gerloff (GRT Yamaha WorldSBK Team) after the American passed Sykes on track.

Look back on a successful Sunday, Sykes said: “It’s not because it’s Donington Park. The fact is we keep learning all the time with the M 1000 RR. The whole of the BMW Motorrad WorldSBK team are working overtime, those guys don’t stop. We want to arrive where we all deserve to be and want to be. On the back of the Navarra test, we’ve come here and gone back to some basics. We’re finding, hopefully, a better way.”

“In the dry conditions, we certainly looked strong. In the wet conditions, we looked very strong so I’m happy for this. Front row in the wet for both myself and Michael, a podium in those tricky conditions for myself and Michael and then in the dry conditions were back on it. Like the number ten bus today, the M 1000 RR has finally got the glory it deserves!”

Can Sykes and van der Mark follow up their podiums as WorldSBK heads to Assen? Find out using the WorldSBK VideoPass!