Tom Sykes became a Donington Park legend as he notched up a third double at the track in the World Superbikes Championship.

Huddersfield rider Sykes pushed the envelope further as he came up with a third double at Donington, hitting the front from the off in race two – after an opening win – and laying down the gauntlet to the rest.

It left the 29-year-old in the same class as four-time world champion Carl Fogarty at the East Midlands track for race wins, and bumped him back up the championship rankings.

However, Jonathan Rae is still leading with Sykes behind by significant points margin going into next round at Portimao.

In race one Sykes’ patience paid dividends as he became the first rider to record five consecutive WSB wins at Donington, having recorded doubles in 2013 and 2014 - and also gaining a first championship win in seven rounds (with his last success being at Laguna Seca last year).

From pole position Sykes hit the front but was soon overtaken by first Leon Haslam and teammate Rea, however there was no panic and by lap eight Sykes had taken the lead and eased away to win by over two seconds after holding off Rea’s challenge.

“It was close racing, but it was fair,” said Sykes.

“I was just pleased to have the pace over race distance, and I thought it was exciting and good viewing for the fans.

“I knew what was coming at the start and I felt I was able to react in a good way.”

The weekend started well for the Sykes as he claimed the 26th Superpole of his career, and he is now tied with legend Troy Bayliss as the second most successful rider in the history of WSB qualifying – though matching Troy Corser’s record of 43 could take a few years yet.

But in doing so Sykes set a new lap record on the Ninja ZX-10R of two minutes 27.07 seconds, beating his own mark, posted when he became world champion in 2013, by a fifth of a second.

“The Superpole win is nice and we got a good grid slot for the race and it was very important that we made up for lost ground from the earlier rounds, so I was very happy with qualifying,” said Sykes.

“It was important to build on what we did at Imola and use our know-how at Donington, and to put in such a good time in qualifying shows the effort that the team have been putting in.”

In the World Supersport section, 23-year-old Kyle Smith suffered yet another of his up-and-down weekends on the Pata Honda CBR600RR.

Smith moved to Spain at the age of seven and had never raced in the UK before – the meeting was his first ever visit to the 4.023km circuit.

After being 11th fastest in practice, the qualifying sessions proved a little rocky for the rider from Fenay Bridge, but he recovered from a crash to take 12th place on the grid.

“I felt strong going into qualifying and thought I could be on the front two rows,” said Smith.

“But I made a mistake very early on and ran into the back of Marco Faccani – for which I have apologised.

“The bike was a bit mangled up in the crash but I managed to get it back to the pits and the guys worked really hard to get me back out with six minutes to go.

“I only got two laps but managed to improve my position quite a lot and put in my fastest lap.”

However, when raceday came Smith’s luck was out yet again.

From fourth row on the grid he managed to push his way through to ninth on the first lap and seemed settled before crashing out on lap three of the 20-lap race.

It was a big disappointment for him because he was confident when lining up that he could pick his way through the field.

He was seen on the live TV coverage, however, picking his machine out of the gravel, and he appeared none the worse for injuries himself.