2014 Phillip Island World Superbike Race One Results

The first race of the season was dry, at 21°C

Sylvain Guintoli took the lead from pole position, followed by Marco Melandri on the other Aprilia, gaining a place on Davide Giugliano's Ducati. Jonathan Rea and Tom Sykes led Chaz Davies, Eugene Laverty and Loris Baz in a second pack. Guintoli tried to stretch out a lead but Melandri and Giugliano stayed with him, with the first three stretching a gap over the second pack that was over two seconds by the time Alex Lowes crashed out on the fourth lap. Elias and Haslam also crashed out in separate incidents.

As the front three remained in a formation, albeit with Giugliano constantly probing at Melandri, Eugene Laverty worked his Suzuki through to the front of the second bunch, fighting with Jonathan Rea's Honda for fourth place.

Nine laps in, Laverty left Rea, Baz, Sykes and Davies and started a campaign to close the four second gap while Giugliano started using wide, sweeping lines as Melandri took defensive tight apexes.

On the thirteenth lap, Laverty was in striking distance from the front three and Giugliano finally passed Melandri. Eugene Laverty saw the man who took his Aprilia ride ahead of him and passed him for third place.

Two laps later, at the end of the straight, Laverty passed Giugliano and swept across the outside of turn one, taking a clean second place and setting his targets on Guintoli and the first place. Two more laps and Laverty passed Guintoli at turn two and set about breaking the Aprilias behind him, leaving them to fight amongst themselves as Melandri passed Giugliano for third.

Eugene Laverty kept the hammer down and took Suzuki's first victory since 2010.

The EVO class was hard-fought between Niccolo Canepa and David Salom, but it was the Kawasaki of Salom that would take the historic first EVO win.

Results: