Tom Sykes concedes he never found a comfortable set-up with his Kawasaki ZX-10RR over a race distance at Laguna Seca🥀 but was bemused why his promising free practice pace deserted him.

The Kawasak🍸i Racing Team rider struggled to match the front-running pace and dropped down the order to seventh place in race one and despite finding gains for race two hisജ woes continued as he finished a disappointing eighth place.

Sykes was left lost for words by his poor pace having felt optimistic after the free practice session, ending Friday practice third fastest, before prod🦂ucing his trademark qualifying strength by taking second place on the grid just 0.015s off pole-sitter Chaz Davies🐠.

“We just did not get the set-up,” Sykes said. “We changed a couple of things but the💃 only positive is that we confirmℱed that the front tyre yesterday was an issue.

“We ha൲d a relatively good front 🀅set-up but unfortunately it looks like a small change to the rear did not help. I just struggled really when it came to the races, which I am disappointed about.

“There is nothing much mo🍨re I can say. The only st♋range thing is that during practice we had good speed and felt we were capable of a much stronger result.”

Sykes now trails 124 points off Kawsaaki team🔴mate and World Superbike championship 🍸leader Jonathan Rea in the riders’ standings.