Goldbet BMW's Chaz Davies has taken the first World Superbike race win at Motorland Aragon this morning, going from third to the lead when Eugene Laverty and Tom Sykes went out on successive laps.
The Welshman had tucked nicely into third place at the Spanish track and was challenging Sykes for second, going past on lap two only for the Kawasaki man to re-pass a lap later. Laverty, meanwhile had pulled a gap only to suffer an electronic problem on lap four.
As he cruised his Aprilia RSV4 into pitlane, Sykes got another half a lap under his belt before looking behind him down the back straight and pullling off line and also pitting in, leaving Davies to take the lead and pull away.
He then set fastest lap after fastest lap to build an eight second lead over Laverty's team-mate Sylvain Guintoli and former 250GP world champion Marco Melandri, who made his way through the pack from eighth on the grid only to make a mistake with a couple of laps left and dropped back down to seventh.
The Italian then had to get his head down and re-pass Loris Baz, Jonathan Rea and Davide Guigliano to make his way back for the final podium spot. Guigilano, on the Althea Aprilia, was looking good for fourth until he ran out of petrol on the last lap, handing the place to Rea, who will grab the points with both hands.
Baz challenged early on but then faded in the later stages, but was able to stay ahead of fellow Frenchman Jules Cluzel on the Fixi Suzuki for sixth place. Carlos Checa, who is apparently carrying an injury from the pre-event karting competition, was seventh and 24 seconds behind the leader.
Michel Fabrizio took the Red Devils Aprilia to eighth, a struggling Leon Haslam, who lost a whole hour of track time after crashing early on in the second qualifying, in ninth and Ayrton Badovini in tenth.
