Tom Sykes feels the World Superbike championship should bin the race two reverse grid system by calling it dangerous and hurting the show element of the races.

After his maiden victory of 2017 in race one at Donington Park, Sykes started race two from ninth on the grid as per the new grid rules with the podium trio starting in reverse order on row three and race one finishers from fourth to ninth promoted on to the front two rows.

Despite losing out to team-mate Jonathan Rea, who actually started from 10th after his race one DNF, Sykes says his race was ruined by being stuck behind slower riders and losing vital time as Rea pulled out an early advantage which he was able to manage to the chequered flag.

"The circumstance of the reverse grid penalised me," Sykes said. "Yes, Jonathan started on row four but he was able to keep on the outside of the track at turn one. In terms of what people wanted to see, that is a big, big battle, the reverse gird pissed on our bonfire - as we say in English!

"I was fighting with other riders which really cost me. I was doing 1m 28.8s in the first laps and then in the last laps I was doing 1m 27.8s and in those opening four laps I lost too much time because of that. I would say the grid definitely caused me the biggest problem but compliments to Jonathan for getting around the mess at turn one."

This has led to Sykes asking for the rule to be dropped for next season as he feels there is a safety concern with other riders taking bigger risks to stay ahead of the race one podium trio.

Donington Park's race two saw a number of riders clash, with Leandro Mercado and Leon Haslam coming together which sent the World Superbike wildcard down while Chaz Davies was forced off the track to avoid hitting Haslam.

"As a professional rider I would say scrap the idea because we've seen too many accidents where other riders almost get overexcited and try to do something different," he said. "Actually, all I've seen is a much bigger mess in the first lap. Jonathan was leading by lap two and I was second not long after so it isn't changing much. It creates more tension and possibility for danger.

"If it was making the top guys fight for fifth, sixth, seventh position for four laps okay but the fact is we are getting to the lead after one lap anyway. So, does it change the show? No, I don't think so.

"If anything I think it destroys the show because you only need to look at race one where Chaz had very strong pace and he was fighting which was better than in race two."