Donington Park can claim to be the spiritual home of World Superbikes as the first ever round was held there, and sure enough the Brits made the most of home town advantage in qualifying. Somewhat expectedly, the Kawasaki pair were the pace setters with Sykes nipping pole from Rea with Giugliano in third followed by an all-Brit second row.
Yes, it's those Kawasakis out front again!
Race one and Sykes got the better start but Leon Haslam, who has done more laps of Donington than anyone else, crept past to take the lead with Rea making it past Sykes to take second spot. A few corner later Rea was in the lead with Davies in fourth spot turning up the wick on the Ducati to ensure the Kawasaki pair and the Aprilia weren't going to check out.
Mid-race and with Sykes now leading the way, the battle for the podium was down to the two Kawasaki riders and Haslam as Davies was dropping off the leading group. Although, that said, Haslam's Aprilia was also now a few metres behind the rapid green bikes who were busily knocking lumps out of each other!
Although Kawasaki's dominance in WSB is starting to get a little dull, at least the pair made it quite an entertaining race before Sykes broke Rea to take a clear win with Davies in third. Could Rea match his teammate's pace in race two?
Ryde (yellow) took a superb third place
With Sykes making the most of his pole position, it was once again down to Haslam and Rea to attempt to cut his advantage in the opening laps. Sadly for Rea, a mistake ruled him out of the chase as he slipped to seventh while at the front Sykes started to set lap records.
A slightly uneventful race saw Sykes take an unchallenged race win with Rea making up for his error by finishing second and Davies beating Haslam to the final podium slot.
The supersport race saw a few Brit wildcards mixing it up with 17-year old Kyle Ryde impressing the most, running with the leaders for the first half of the race and eventually fending off Zanetti to finish a stunning third.
Race 1:
1. Sykes (Kawasaki Racing Team)
2. Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team)
3. Davies (Aruba.it Racing - Ducati SBK Team)
Race 2:
1. Sykes (Kawasaki Racing Team)
2. Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team)
3. Davies (Aruba.it Racing - Ducati SBK Team)
Leon Haslam (Aprilia) - 4, 4
Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki) - 2, 2
Tom Sykes (Kawasaki) - 1, 1
Alex Lowes (Suzuki) - 6, 6
Chaz Davies (Ducati) - 3, 3
Leon Camier (MV Agusta) - 9, DNF
Gino Rea (Honda WSS) - 8
Kyle Smith (Honda WSS) - DNF