Aragon WSBK: Ducati's Davies dominates Race 1

Kawasaki duo Jonathan Rea and Tom Sykes, who had together won the four opening races of 2016, completed the podium - but had no answer to Welshman Davies, who had fought from fourth on the grid to the lead early on and never looked back.

Off the line, poleman Sykes comfortably carried the lead into Turn 1, while the Yamahas alongside him were somewhat sluggish.

And whereas Sylvain Guintoli held off Rea for second, his Yamaha teammate Alex Lowes started to tumble down the order, ending up outside of the top 10 in no time.

Guintoli managed to keep up with Sykes over the opening laps, but Rea did not, dicing against the Ducatis in a heated battle for third and eventually slipping behind Davies.

Impressively, Davies then reeled in Sykes and Guintoli and powered past both to take the lead before rapidly building a gap of two seconds over the former.

Meanwhile, having held off Davide Giugliano, Rea picked up the pace to overtake Guintoli for third - and, while Davies continued to control the race out front, the reigning champion slowly closed in on and eventually passed Sykes.

The Kawasaki duo then continued to run close by but did not switch positions again, finishing well adrift of Davies.

Behind them, Barni's Xavi Fores on a satellite Ducati held off factory rider Giugliano for a career-best fourth, with Nicky Hayden sixth, the American's Honda teammate Michael van der Mark crashing on lap four.

Jordi Torres (Althea BMW) was seventh, with Lowes passing Yamaha teammate Guintoli for eighth and Lorenzo Savadori completing the top 10, just 0.1s up on Ioda Aprilia teammate Alex de Angelis.

Race 1 results

Pos.	Rider	Bike	Gap
1	Chaz Davies	Ducati
2	Jonathan Rea	Kawasaki	+4.168
3	Tom Sykes	Kawasaki	+4.948
4	Javier Fores	Ducati	+12.723
5	Davide Giugliano	Ducati	+13.151
6	Nicky Hayden	Honda	+21.117
7	Jordi Torres	BMW	+22.112
8	Alex Lowes	Yamaha	+25.575
9	Sylvain Guintoli	Yamaha	+28.941
10	Lorenzo Savadori	Aprilia	+34.956
11	Alex de Angelis	Aprilia	+35.075
12	Roman Ramos	Kawasaki	+37.310
13	Joshua Brookes	BMW	+37.442
14	Markus Reiterberger	BMW	+37.731
15	Karel Abraham	BMW	+52.270
16	Sylvain Barrier	Kawasaki	+56.295
17	Matthieu Lussiana	BMW	+67.602
18	Dominic Schmitter	Kawasaki	+95.691
19	Peter Sebestyen	Yamaha	+95.746
20	Imre Toth	Yamaha	+1 Lap
Ret	Saeed Al Sulaiti	Kawasaki
Ret	Matteo Baiocco	Ducati
Ret	Joshua Hook	Kawasaki
Ret	Leon Camier	MV Agusta
Ret	Michael van der Mark	Honda