Aprilia's Eugene Laverty romped to his first World Superbike race win of the year at Portimao this afternoon despite a late charge by Jonathan Rea which saw the Irishman's lead slashed from two seconds to two tenths on the last lap.
But is was disaster for championship challenger Tom Sykes who went out of the race with a blown engine on lap two, effectively putting one of Max Biaggi's hands on the 2012 title as Marco Melandri, who is in hospital after his race-one crash, didn't start the second leg and is now a long way behind on points.
Biaggi's lead means he has a one-race cushion over Sykes going into the final round at Magny-Cours where there will be 50 points up for grabs. It will take some bad luck for the Roman Emperor not to bag his second WSBK title.
Team-mate Laverty rode a superlative race, grabbing the lead on lap one and never looking back. He quickly opened a sizeable gap which he managed for the entire race, only allowing Rea to close in during the latter stages while Biaggi didn't need to do anything more to take his podium.
The Italian was challenged by Fixi Suzuki's Leon Camier, who once again came on strong late on, but a problem with his bike saw him run wide out of fourth place and then roll down pitlane on the penultimate lap after looking quick enough to pass his former team-mate.
Sylvain Guintoli was promoted to fourth place by Camier's retirement while Carlos Checa, who looked to have a technical problem right at the start, came home in fifth and will now be resigned to giving his world title away in France. Ayrton Badovini took sixth, Loris Baz seventh, Michel Fabrizio eighth, Brett McCormick ninth and Lorenzo Lanzi tenth.
Parkingo Aprilia's Chaz Davies crashed out of second place on lap five while the luckless Leon Haslam only lasted two laps, rolling down pitlane with an 'electrical' problem on his S1000RR.
