Honda's Jonathan Rea had to give best to Marco Melandri in the second World Superbike race at Miller Motorsport Park after a nail-biting encounter which saw the Irishman fight the Italian right to the final corner.

Rea went past the BMW man on the brakes into turn one with eight laps to go and pulled a small gap but as he slowly ran out of edge grip and hit a false neutral, Melandri came back at him, going past on the final lap and there was nothing Rea could do as the extra horsepower of the BMW propelled Melandri away out of the final corner.

Welshman Chaz Davies rode the race of his season to finish just behind Max Biaggi in fourth. The tall Parkingo Aprilia rider shot through into fourth place on lap one and got involved in the fight, passing Tom Sykes for third as Rea started to make his way through.

Carlos Checa had made his move for the lead early and pulled a small gap but then sensationally crashed, came into the pits and then re-joined a couple of laps later but his mistake handed the lead to Melandri.

Sykes, meanwhile, fell victim to Max Biaggi who then went after Melandri, Rea and Davies. Just after Rea passed Melandri, Davies took advantage and bagged second place, keeping the fast BMW behind him in the twisties but Melandri rocketed past as they came over start/finish and he went on to win.

Davies then came under fire from Biaggi and just didn't have the pace to stay with the factory RSV4 but will be made up with his first top-five finish. Sykes finished in fifth place after fending off a late charge by Eugene Laverty on the second factory Aprilia.

Davide Guigliano was the lone Althea bike to finish in seventh as he got the better of a struggling Leon Haslam. Poleman Jakub Smrz was ninth with Sylvain Guintoli in tenth and Leon Camier ending in 11th.

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