Kawasaki's Tom Sykes fended off a hard charge by reigning World Superbike Champion Carlos Checa at Portimao in tricky conditions to take his fourth career win, blowing the title race wide open after Marco Melandri crashed out for the third race in a row.
The BMW rider slipped off early in the first part of a re-started race, taking out Davide Guigliano and Chaz Davies was left with nowhere to go but over the Italian who has been taken to hospital for a scan on his kidneys and will not start race two. The race was subsequently red-flagged when Nicola Brignola crashed and laid down some oil.
Sykes has jumped to second in the title standings and is only 14.5 points behind Max Biaggi who was fourth and had the Liberty Ducati of Brett McCormick climbing all over him while Honda's Jonathan Rea was also in the mix after the trio were passed by the smooth style of Sylvain Guintoli who cruised to the final podium spot.
At the re-start on a drying track, Biaggi got the holeshot with Rea, team-mate Eugene Laverty and Sykes in close attendance while Checa was a couple of places further back. It didn't take Sykes long to drive by Rea for second on the long start/finish straight and he was past Biaggi using the same tactic a lap later.
Sykes then put a gap into the chasing pack as Checa made use of the Althea Ducati's smooth power delivery to find grip where the four-cylinder bikes couldn't and was catching Sykes at around a second a lap as the race distance closed down.
He was on the Huddersfield man's rear wheel with two laps to go buyt Sykes rode accurately and didn't leave the Spaniard any room to pass, so Checa had to settle for second place. Biaggi was passed by McCormick but got him back with a handful of laps to go while Rea just ran out of laps.
Loris Baz, Hiro Aoyama and Ayrton Badovini scrapped it out for seventh with the Frenchman coming out on top with Michel Fabrizio in tenth. Leon Camier got the better of his Fixi Suzuki team-mate for 11th, while Leon Haslam was given a ride-through for jump start but ended back in the garage. Davies didn't make the re-start due to bike damage.
