The Motul World Superbike Championship has long been a favourite for Australian fans alongside MotoGP and, to date in 2016, it’s been a frantic opening five rounds. CycleOnline.com.au rates the performances so far, five rounds into the season.

Source: Supplied.

Rider: Jonathan Rea
Rating: A
Rundown: On the podium in all but one race and with five wins to his credit already (a 50 percent strike rate), reigning world champion Rea is on target for back-to-back crowns already. He has two doubles in the bag – Phillip Island and Assen – on board the latest Kawasaki ZX-10R and can rely on consistency to bring the title home. Pressure from Davies is mounting though!

Rider: Chaz Davies
Rating: A-
Rundown: Trailing Rea by 35 points already, Davies had a mixed beginning to the season. Phillip Island was strong aside from his race two crash, but he really hit his strides by the time round three came around at Aragon. Two wins sparked his title hopes, which he was able to repeat last time out at Imola. Consistency so far isn’t a match for Rea, but if he can reel off some more wins the points will come.

Rider: Tom Sykes
Rating: B
Rundown: Many were predicting 2013 title winner Sykes would take it to teammate Rea in 2016, but so far it’s never really eventuated in terms of the title race. Sure, he’s shown flashes of speed, has a win to his scorecard in race two at Thailand and seven podiums from 10 races, but he hasn’t been a match for the world champion. That’s resulted in him being a full 67 points outside of the series lead and we’re not even at halfway yet.

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Rider: Michael van der Mark
Rating: B+
Rundown: When former World Supersport Champion van der Mark started the season with three-straight rostrums in Australia and Thailand, it indicated he had arrived as a pure threat in WorldSBK. Ranked as high as second in the standings early on, from there inconsistency has crept in and his lone podium since was in race two at Assen. Still, he’s 24 points ahead of Honda teammate Nicky Hayden and that’s saying something on aging machinery.

Rider: Alex Lowes
Rating: C+
Rundown: Pegged with developing the all-new Pata Yamaha YZF-R1 WorldSBK contender alongside 2014 champion Sylvain Guintoli, we’d have thought Lowes would be more impressive by now. With a best finish of sixth in Chang race one and Imola race two (Guintoli’s best was fifth in the second leg at Phillip Island), it’s not been the season we’d anticipated for Lowes or Yamaha. All the way down in 10th overall, we need to see more in the mid-stages of the season.

Rider: Josh Brookes
Rating: C+
Rundown: A stunning ride in mixed conditions at Assen during race two was a cause for great optimism as Australia’s current BSB champ Brookes tackles the challenge of WorldSBK with his Milwaukee-backed BMW team. After a trying week at Phillip Island a pair of top 10 finishes (10-9) was positive, but he hasn’t been able to match those results since. 16th overall, we know Brookes is better than that, but he needs to get that S 1000 RR dialled into his liking sooner, rather than later (we can’t help but feel he’d be far better in blue).