Tom Sykes broke the lap record on his way to victory in the second Bennetts British Superbike Championship race at Donington Park.
The MCE Ducati rider didn’t get away from the line as well as he did in Race One, but he soon made his way to the front. Sykes went down the inside of Bradley Ray at Redgate on lap three and was left unchallenged for the remainder of the race, posting a record lap-time of 1:28.808.
Ray, who opted to use the harder Pirelli SC0 rear tyre, crossed the line in second spot, extending his series lead to 55 points over Tommy Bridewell, who came home in sixth after losing out to Lee Jackson coming out of the final corner.
Glenn Irwin completed the podium after coming out on top in an exciting battle with brother Andrew Irwin. The former had too much of a gap to chase down once he managed to get by the SYNETIQ BMW rider.
Jason O’Halloran was seventh after being pipped to the finish line by Bridewell, whilst Peter Hickman, Josh Brookes and Ryan Vickers completed the top 10.
Kyle Ryde and Danny Buchan were 11th and 12th respectively, whilst Superbike rookie Charlie Nesbitt finished 13th despite having to start from the back after stalling on the grid – initiating the need for a second warm-up lap.
Danny Kent and Takumi Takahashi secured the final two points available in Race Two.
Leon Haslam crashed out of the race at the very first corner, whilst Tom Neave also went down at Redgate a few laps later. Jack Kennedy returned to the pits and retired on lap 12.
The third and final BSB race of the weekend is due to begin at 16:30.
