Huddersfield's Tom Sykes put himself in pole position in the World Superbikes Championship with four meetings remaining.

An impressive display at Germany’s Nurburgring – with a win and a fourth place finish – put the Kawasaki Racing Team racer into a slender one-point lead ahead of rival Sylvain Guintoli in the race for the title.

And Sykes is hoping he and his Ninja ZX-10R have hit the front at just the right time with meetings in Istanbul, Laguna Seca, Magny-Cours and Jerez to come.

“I will take the result and I am very happy for the 25 points,” said Sykes, who now leads with 287 points to Aprilia rider Guintoli’s 286.

“We had a small issue with the bike set-up prior to racing and I was expecting to probably win more points in race two – but I won race one and it is racing, so things like that happen.

“But it was important to keep Sylvain (Guintoli) behind me in that second race as we saw how every point counts last year.

“It adds to the end of season points basket and after this meeting we are leading the championship again.”

However, the 28-year-old, who lost out on the 2012 title by half a point to Italian Max Biaggi, is certain there is room for improvement before the next outing at the Intercity Istanbul Park circuit on Sunday, September 15.

“I think we know where we can improve and I am very happy to have the people around me that I have,” added Sykes.

“It seems that we had some limitations in the second race in Germany, which is a shame because over race distance I was 100% confident in myself.”