Tom Sykes has joked it is a ‘slight understatement’ to say he is happy after securing his first World Su𝓰perbike Championship podium since join🔯ing the BMW Motorrad WorldSBK team at Misano.

The Briton put in a stellar performance on the BMW S1000RR throughou🍎t the Rimini weeke𝓀nd, keeping his nerve in treacherous conditions of race one to turn a front row start into a run to second position behind Jonathan Rea.

He looked set for a second straight podium in the Superpole Race but for a ﷽mechanical issue to halt him with only half a lap remaining, which in turn scuppered his hopes of fighting for the rostrum in race t꧒wo from 11th on the grid.

Despite this, his sixth place result consolidated a strong weekend as a whole for both Sykes and the manufacturer, with race one’s second place signalling the first WorldSBK podium for a BMW branded machine sinceꦫ Marco Melandri 𓆏achieved the feat in 2013.

“To say that I am very happy would be a slight understatement,” Sykes said when speaking after race one. :”I am very, very happy andဣ it’s just credit to all the guys in the BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team. 🐬We’ve been working really hard and finally we’ve got the result which I feel we deserve.

“We’ve been pushing forward and ✤it’s absolutely fantastic. I really enjoyed riding in the wet conditions. The BMW S 1000 RR gave me some great feedback today and what a better place to do that than here at Misano in front of some amazing fans.”

“It was a little bit unfortunate[the Superpole Race DNF]. “I honꦦestly feel that we had three podiums in reach. We were third in the sprint race until the last lap and had a issue which allowed Leon Haslam to come close and then unfortunately we retired.

“That didn’t help the cause as this meant that I started the last big race from the fourth row which cost me some time in the first few laps. The whole BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team did a great job. I feel if we had started from the front row we could have gone away, kept our rhythm and I definitely feel that thisꦫ would have allowed another podium position.

So a little bit of a shame but on the plus side we’ve had a podium, we finished second this weekend with the all-new BMW S 1000 RR, we are showing its potential. Even in this last race we had very good co♊nsistency. W﷽e will build on this.”

Though the result is Sykes’ 109th career WorldSBK podium, it is his first on anything other ﷽than a♑ Kawasaki machine since 2008 when he rode the Rizla Suzuki to second place at Donington Park during a one-off wild-card.