Former British Superbike star Loris Baz bagged his debut World Superbike win at Silverstone yesterday using slicks on a damp track and demonstrating his is a force to be reckoned with in the future.

The Frenchman slipped ahead of the BMW Italia bikes, ridden by Michel Fabrizio and Ayrton Badovini, to take the chequered flag in a race that was red-flagged early on because of the weather.

“It is really special to win and to win in England because I raced here in BSB last year for a while. I would also like to thank Kawasaki for believing in me. We made no mistakes in race one and finished up front. I think in the dry we are also really fast and we can fight for the first five or seven places. I chose the slick tyre because it was the best choice in race one," said Baz.

"The conditions in race one were crazy for a while and early on I was missing some grip but when I saw the rains coming I pushed hard even though it was quite wet but I stayed on the bike and I am really happy, as you can imagine, for this victory. I want to thank all the team and we are also thinking of Joan Lascorz, because this victory is for him now. As for race two it was amazing to be here inside the top three again.

"The start of race two was not so wet so I just tried to keep my tyres, and then it started to move back up to Kuba and Sylvain, passed them both and them before falling, I think it was the right decision to take the race results back to lap eight because there was a lot of fuel on the track for two laps, and a lot of water. I am really happy and thanks to all my crew and Kawasaki again.”