What should Have been a celebratory World Superbikes Championship meeting in Malaysia went sadly wrong for Huddersfield racer Tom Sykes.

The birth of a second daughter last week and then another superpole success put Sykes in confident mood.

The 29-year-old Kawasaki Racing Team rider claimed his 28th career pole position with a 2 minute 03.240 lap that gave him the best possible starting place for the two races in WorldSBK’s tenth round at the Sepang International Circuit in Kuala Lumpur.

However, tyre problems and a crash were to confound the hopes of the 2013 champion as he slipped to a fifth place finish after leading race one and then was down the field in 14th for race two.

With his Kawasaki teammate Jonathan Rea collecting a win in the first race and second place in the second outing – Ducati’s Chaz Davies winning a dramatic contest – Sykes also slipped in the championship standings with Rea leading on 452 points, Davies second on 308 and Sykes now down in third on 295.

Kawasaki Racing team riders Jonathan Rea (No65) and Tom Sykes (No66)

“I had a great start to the weekend as my wife had just given birth to a baby daughter,” said Sykes.

“On track we were a little bit behind to start with as we had a big schedule of work and had to compromise on it because of the session we missed due to the rain in free practice.

“But that was the same for everybody so overall I was relatively happy.

“We did what we wanted for Superpole and I was confident, though the weather can be a bit hit and miss but we were set-up for dry conditions.”

And everything seemed to be fine as Sykes led from the lights in race one and continued to pull away at the front of the pack.

However, Championship leader Rea capitalised following a late reduction in speed from his teammate to win the opening race.

Davies’ tyres were holding up better than those of long-time leader Sykes and the Welshman duly passed Sykes as did third-placed Max Biaggi (Aprilia Racing Team) and reigning champion Sylvain Guintoli on the Pata Honda.

Huddersfield rider Tom Sykes (left) with Kawasaki Racing Team manager Guim Roda and double winner at Imola Jonathan Rea

In the second race, a turn one incident saw two-time world champion Biaggi crash out of contention with Sykes and Alex Lowes (Voltcom Crescent Suzuki) having to take evasive action before the Italian retired.

Davies went on to clinch the victory ahead of Rea, while rookie Jordi Torres (Aprilia Racing Team Red Devils) recorded his second podium of the season in third.

Sykes added: “We were unlucky in race two as someone got on the inside of Max and he was pushed wide. He had nowhere to go and I was on the outside, so bad luck really.

“I was catching the group in front and felt good after making a change to the bike after race one.

“It was better but not perfect. I struggled with a bent brake lever after the contact and then when I fell later on I bent the gearlever up about 15mm and broke the footpeg off, so I only had a little stub.

“We were unlucky, which is a shame because we had great pace on the bike, but the tyre dropped a lot in race one and we never expected that.”

Results and standings

World Superbike Championship Round 10, Sepang International Circuit, Kuala Lumpur, Race One: 1 Jonathan Rea (Gbr) Kawasaki 33mins 33.964secs, 2 Chaz Davies (Gbr) Ducati 33:34.085, 3 Max Biaggi (Ita) Aprilia 33:44.659, 4 Sylvain Guintoli (Fra) Honda 33:49.397, 5 Tom Sykes (Gbr) Kawasaki 33:51.947, 6 Alex Lowes (Gbr) Suzuki 33:57.722, 7 Leon Haslam (Gbr) Aprilia 33:58.818, 8 Matteo Baiocco (Ita) Ducati 34:02.270, 9 Niccolo Canepa (Ita) EBR 34:05.062, 10 Jordi Torres (Spa) Aprilia 34:08.069

Race Two: 1 Chaz Davies (Gbr) Ducati 33mins 36.466secs, 2 Jonathan Rea (Gbr) Kawasaki 33:36.557, 3 Jordi Torres (Spa) Aprilia 33:41.474, 4 Sylvain Guintoli (Fra) Honda 33:49.596, 5 Michael van der Mark (Ned) Honda 33:52.267, 6 Leon Haslam (Gbr) Aprilia 33:52.436, 7 David Salom (Spa) Kawasaki 34:01.027, 8 Alex Lowes (Gbr) Suzuki 34:02.992, 9 Matteo Baiocco (Ita) Ducati 34:04.994, 10 Roman Ramos (Spa) Kawasaki 34:08.064

Championship Standings: 1 Jonathan Rea (Gbr) Kawasaki 452pts, 2 Chaz Davies (Gbr) Ducati 308, 3 Tom Sykes (Gbr) Kawasaki 295, 4 Leon Haslam (Gbr) Aprilia 259, 5 Jordi Torres (Spa) Aprilia 186, 6 Sylvain Guintoli (Fra) Honda 162, 7 Michael van der Mark (Ned) Honda 125, 8 Davide Giugliano (Ita) Ducati 119, 9 Alex Lowes (Gbr) Suzuki 112, 10 Matteo Baiocco (Ita) Ducati 107