Lausitz WSBK: Davies defeats Kawasaki duo in Race 1

Davies had qualified a season-low sixth, 0.64s off pole as Tom Sykes and Jonathan Rea secured a 1-2 on the grid for Kawasaki.

But Rea ran wide after going down the inside of Sykes at Turn 1 after the start and, as he slotted back onto the racing line, Davies was already ahead courtesy of a lighting start.

On the second lap, Davies picked off Sykes for the lead of the race, with Rea following through at the first corner next time around.

While Sykes couldn't keep pace with the leading pair for long, Rea managed to remain in touch with the race lead for most of the race, staying within half a second of Davies.

But the Welshman finally broke away from Rea in the final stretch of the 21-lap race, finishing 1.8s ahead of the reigning champion.

Sykes brought it home in third, with Davies' teammate Marco Melandri only just hanging on to fourth over MV Agusta's Leon Camier and Yamaha's Alex Lowes.

Lorenzo Savadori, who will test Aprilia's MotoGP machinery next week, lost ground after starting on the front row and ended up seventh at the flag.

Barni Ducati's Xavi Fores was eighth, ahead of BMW's Jordi Torres, who recovered after dropping back in the opening laps, and Aprilia's Eugene Laverty.

Honda wildcard Davide Giugliano, making his return to World Superbikes since his exit from the Ducati works team at the end of last year, retired with a mechanical issue while running in the points.

The outfit's regular rider Stefan Bradl sat out the race due to lingering arm pain from a Friday crash.

With nine races left to run, Rea has extended his advantage over teammate Sykes to 63 points, with Davies 110 off the championship leader.

Race results

Cla	#	Rider	Bike	Gap
1	7	Chaz Davies	Ducati	-
2	1	Jonathan Rea	Kawasaki	1.834
3	66	Tom Sykes	Kawasaki	3.250
4	33	Marco Melandri	Ducati	16.005
5	2	Leon Camier	MV Agusta	16.597
6	22	Alex Lowes	Yamaha	16.783
7	32	Lorenzo Savadori	Aprilia	24.898
8	12	Xavi Fores	Ducati	31.137
9	81	Jordi Torres	BMW	31.373
10	50	Eugene Laverty	Aprilia	40.593
11	36	Leandro Mercado	Aprilia	47.796
12	88	Randy Krummenacher	Kawasaki	48.509
13	21	Markus Reiterberger	BMW	50.795
14	40	Roman Ramos	Kawasaki	1 lap
15	60	Michael van der Mark	Yamaha	1 lap
16	86	Ayrton Badovini	Kawasaki	1 lap
Ret	35	Raffaele De Rosa	BMW
Ret	19	Pawel Szkopek	Yamaha
Ret	84	Riccardo Russo	Yamaha
Ret	37	Ondrej Jezek	Kawasaki
Ret	34	Davide Giugliano	Honda
Ret	55	Massimo Roccoli	Yamaha