---
title: "Sykes felt his Kawasaki was ‘capable of winning’ on Sunday"
canonical: "https://readmotorsport.com/2017/04/30/sykes-felt-his-kawasaki-was-capable-of-winning-on-sunday/"
type: "post"
language: "en-GB"
author: "Lewis Duncan"
section: "SBK"
published: "2017-04-30T19:36:23Z"
modified: "2017-04-30T19:36:23Z"
---

# Sykes felt his Kawasaki was ‘capable of winning’ on Sunday

Kawasaki Racing’s Tom Sykes felt he had a motorcycle capable of winning today’s second outing at Assen, but was denied a first World Superbike victory since Laguna Seca last year by just 0.025s.

The Yorkshireman has been battling illness since the Aragon round, and despite having a month to recover has still been feeling severely under the weather. Sykes gritted his teeth in the first race to climb onto the second step of the podium.

![Mirco Lazzari gp/Getty Images Sport](https://media.readmotorsport.com/readmotorsport/2017/04/674828274.jpg)

Feeling as if his race one pace was only ‘acceptable’, Sykes was determined to mount a proper challenge on Sunday and worked right up to the last minute fettling the set-up on his ZX-10RR.

This perseverance paid off, as Sykes battled team-mate Jonathan Rea for much of the 21-lap contest. Still sat on the tail of the sister KRT ZX-10RR on the final lap, Sykes tried to maximise his run out of the final corner to snatch victory, but admits he misplaced his machine.

“I just did not have the bike in the right place at the right time, and did not get the win for that reason,” the 2013 world champion explained.

“I always kept trying and I am obviously disappointed not to take the win. But considering where I was even at the start of the race week, if anybody had offered me two second places from Assen I would have thought it was never going to happen.”

Sykes’ biggest issue recently has been endurance during a race due to his condition, and this was an area he and crew chief Marcel Duinker worked on with his ZX-10RR after Saturday’s outing.

Despite his struggles with illness, as well with adapting his aggressive riding style to WorldSBK’s 2017 regulations, Sykes has tallied up rostrums in all but two races so far this season and is second in the standings as a result, 64 points off of leader Rea.

![Mirco Lazzari gp/Getty Images Sport](https://media.readmotorsport.com/readmotorsport/2017/04/675155814.jpg)

“It was a very close finish and I have to say thanks to the public, my fans and all the team for being very understanding about my physical condition,” he added.

“Yesterday, we had an acceptable race, but today we never stopped pushing to find an ideal set-up, right up until 30 minutes before the race started.

“Marcel and I were still talking about how to get the bike easier for me to ride. Physically, I was obviously not fully comfortable with the bike set-up from yesterday, but today I felt we had a package capable of winning.”