Phillip Island WSBK: Rea beats Davies in thrilling first race of 2016

Third on the grid, Rea got a jump on fellow front-row starters Tom Sykes and Davide Giugliano but only led the way for a handful of laps before giving up the place to his teammate Sykes.

The Kawasaki duo was at that point closely followed by Giugliano, Michael van der Mark and the fast-starting Davies, the trio jockeying for positions.

Sykes' pace would then drop off in a big way at around the halfway point as he was muscled down the order, allowing van der Mark and the Ducatis of Giugliano and Davies to establish themselves as Rea's main challengers.

However, the Northern Irishman's lead was left largely unchallenged up until the final lap.

Having emerged victorious in a duel with van der Mark for second, Davies was able make a move on Rea, edging ahead under braking but running just wide enough to allow Rea to retake the spot.

The reigning champion would, as such, go on to win the race, albeit did so by just 0.063s.

Van der Mark completed the podium, having to fend off Giugliano through the final corners.

Sykes had to settle for fifth, just holding off Sylvain Guintoli, the Frenchman securing sixth on Yamaha's return as his teammate Alex Lowes crashed out.

Leon Camier recovered from a slow start to take seventh, followed by Jordi Torres, newcomer Nicky Hayden, who had run with the fellow Honda of van der Mark before dropping off, and Josh Brookes.

Race results:

Pos.	Rider	Team	Bike	Time
1	Jonathan Rea	Kawasaki Racing	Kawasaki ZX-10R	33:47.823
2	Chaz Davies	Ducati Team	Ducati 1199 Panigale R	+0.063
3	Michael van der Mark	Honda World Superbike Team	Honda CBR1000RR SP	+0.487
4	Davide Giugliano	Ducati Team	Ducati 1199 Panigale R	+0.647
5	Tom Sykes	Kawasaki Racing	Kawasaki ZX-10R	+3.429
6	Sylvain Guintoli	Pata Yamaha Official WSBK Team	Yamaha YZF-R1	+3.510
7	Leon Camier	MV Agusta	MV Agusta 1000 F4	+10.721
8	Jordi Torres	Althea BMW Racing Team	BMW S1000 RR	+11.539
9	Nicky Hayden	Honda World Superbike Team	Honda CBR1000RR SP	+15.534
10	Joshua Brookes	Milwaukee BMW	BMW S1000 RR	+23.239
11	Roman Ramos	Team Go Eleven	Kawasaki ZX-10R	+23.411
12	Lorenzo Savadori	IodaRacing Team	Aprilia RSV4 RF	+24.012
13	Karel Abraham	Milwaukee BMW	BMW S1000 RR	+37.281
14	Mike Jones	Desmo Sport Ducati	Ducati 1199 Panigale R	+44.720
15	Sylvain Barrier	Pedercini Racing	Kawasaki ZX-10R	+46.357
16	Dominic Schmitter	Grillini Racing Team	Kawasaki ZX-10R	+1:08.238
17	Saeed Al Sulaiti	Pedercini Racing	Kawasaki ZX-10R	+1:08.299
18	Peter Sebestyen	Team Toth	Yamaha YZF-R1	+1:30.771
19	Imre Toth	Team Toth	Yamaha YZF-R1	+1 lap
DNF	Markus Reiterberger	Althea BMW Racing Team	BMW S1000 RR
DNF	Alex Lowes	Pata Yamaha Official WSBK Team	Yamaha YZF-R1
DNF	Javier Fores	Barni Racing Team	Ducati 1199 Panigale R
DNF	Alex de Angelis	IodaRacing Team	Aprilia RSV4 RF