Friday welcomed an opening day full of mixed weather conditions as the World SBK returns from the summer break, and Tom Sykes (Kawasaki Racing Team) ended the day on top, breaking the lap record along the way.

The British rider was thrilled to have the pace in Germany, and has hailed his team for their fast work at fixing his bike following a crash in FP2.

With a strong pace throughout the day, Sykes was able to get his faTom st lap in before the rain hit the German circuit, and with a lap time of 1.3.337, he is confident he can work on a few issues come Saturday.

Sykes was thrilled with his pace on the opening day:"What can I say, just a big thanks to the Kawasaki Racing Team and all my boys, the ZX-10RR is working really well. We had a really great test here, found a lot of good information and straight away in FP1 – the track itself wasn’t as good as the test but we were able to make some good lap times and have some consistency."

"The feedback from Pirelli tyres is good, I’m getting good warnings and good information. Went into FP2, tried a couple of different things and very happy with today’s performance and looking forward to tomorrow where we can hope to keep the momentum going"