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Phillip Island WSBK: Rea wins Race 1 by 0.04s

Jonathan Rea kicked off his World Superbike title defence with a photo finish win over Chaz Davies at Phillip Island.

Jonathan Rea, Kawasaki Racing

Jonathan Rea, Kawasaki Racing

Kawasaki Racing Team

Polesitter Jonathan Rea, Kawasaki Racing, second place Tom Sykes, Kawasaki
Jonathan Rea, Kawasaki Racing
Chaz Davies, Ducati
Alex Lowes, Pata Yamaha
Tom Sykes, Kawasaki Racing

The pole-sitter and reigning World Champion found himself under fire five laps in, dropping right back to fourth behind Marco Melandri, Alex Lowes, and Tom Sykes.

He worked his way back up to second on Lap 11, re-taking the lead from Lowes a lap later – only to drop back to third several laps later.

With three laps to go, Rea made his move, charging past teammate Sykes and into the lead with Davies in hot pursuit. The pair ran nose-to-tail right to the end, crossing the line effectively side-by-side with Rea just 0.04s ahead.

“When I found myself at the front with three to go, I made sure I was quite defensive in the last sector,” said Rea. “I was able to bring it home. To start the season with 25 points is exactly what I needed to do. It was a strange race, we should have been much much faster, but we did what we had to do in the end to bank 25 points.”

Behind Davies, Sykes came home third, just a second behind Rea, while Yamaha rider Lowes – who led the race midway through – came home fourth, which means he'll start tomorrow's second race from pole position. 

Leon Camier was fifth on the MV Augusta, having made a decent start and steady progress throughout the race. Xavi Fores was next, the final rider to have been in sight of the lead group.

Jordi Torres was the best-placed BMW in seventh, ahead of Eugene Laverty on the Aprilia and Michael van der Mark on the Yamaha.

Randy Krummenacher rounded out the Top 10, while Nicky Hayden led the way for Honda down in 11th.

Melandri, who led the race in the early stages, didn’t see the finish, retiring midway through with a mechanical issue.

Phillip Island – Race 1 

ClaDriverBikeTime/Gap
1 1 united_kingdom Jonathan Rea  Kawasaki 33'52.290
2 7 united_kingdom Chaz Davies  Ducati 0.042
3 66 united_kingdom Tom Sykes  Kawasaki 1.050
4 22 united_kingdom Alex Lowes  Yamaha 1.082
5 2 united_kingdom Leon Camier  MV Agusta 3.002
6 12 spain Xavi Forés  Ducati 3.320
7 81 spain Jordi Torres  BMW 8.725
8 50 ireland Eugene Laverty  Aprilia 12.135
9 60 netherlands Michael van der Mark  Yamaha 12.180
10 88 switzerland Randy Krummenacher  Kawasaki 12.439
11 69 united_states Nicky Hayden  Honda 19.344
12 21 germany Markus Reiterberger  BMW 21.336
13 40 spain Roman Ramos  Kawasaki 24.866
14 15 san_marino Alex de Angelis  Kawasaki 24.902
15 6 germany Stefan Bradl  Honda 28.936
16 84 italy Riccardo Russo  Yamaha 39.404
17 86 italy Ayrton Badovini  Kawasaki 42.941
18 37 czech_republic Ondrej Jezek  Kawasaki 48.043
Ret  33 italy Marco Melandri  Ducati 7 laps 
Ret 25 australia Josh Brookes  Yamaha 16 laps 
Ret 32 italy Lorenzo Savadori  Aprilia 17 laps 

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