his best time on the way to third despite ending his session with an off at Turn 12.

Though ‘only’ fourth and fifth, factory Kawasaki Racing riders Jonathan Rea and Leon Haslam were still just a short distance off the top spot and more in contention than they had been in FP1.

Similarly, Alvaro Bautista enjoyed a substantially stronger afternoon on the Aruba.it Ducati Panigale V4 R even if he remains three tenths off the top spot in sixth.

Making the largest gains of any rider between FP1 and FP2, Sandro Cortese was seventh quickest on the GRT Yamaha, ahead of R1 stablemate Loris Baz – who slipped from fourth to eighth – Chaz Davies and Jordi Torres.

Elsewhere, Sykes’ team-mate Peter Hickman was 12th quickest, but only a tenth from therealistic scores, so perhaps it's time to make me work a little harder.

Also, starting again with a different team might keep things fresh. It just depends how busy I am.

This one was a little more challenging, with a late run resulting in a close victory with a nice scoreline. Still a little boring though, with the CPU not quite aggressive enough. Upping the CPU intercept slider resulted in a few more turnovers as the CPU managed to pick off some poor passes.

Donyell Marshall got his first start of the season, and responded with a nice effort at the offensive end but grabbed only one rebound in 30 minutes of playing time. Scottie Pippen played sparingly, picking up two quick fouls after entering the game in the second quarter.