Pata Honda’s Jonathan Rea eased to his first World Superbike victory of the season in damp and changeable conditions. The Northern Irishman got the better of Aprilia’s Eugene Laverty and the Kawasaki duo of Tom Sykes and Loris Baz to take the lead on lap seven.

Rea was able to pull away and crossed the finishing line at Silverstone with a five second advantage, followed by Laverty and Fixi Crescent Suzuki’s Leon Camier, who clinched his first podium of the year.

The race was delayed as rain started to fall out on the circuit, but in the end it all the racers decided to go out on slick tyres, with the option of a tyre change if the weather worsened, but the race was reduced to seventeen laps.

On the opening lap Laverty led the way, from pole with Baz and Sykes not far behind. By the second lap Sykes got the better of his young team-mate at Abbey Corner, and managed to do one better a lap later to take the lead at Stowe Corner. Rea managed to claw his way up to a potential podium in third after getting the better of Laverty who slipped down the grid.

Rea was then engrossed in a battle with Sykes with the Huddersfield rider having that extra space on the National Pit Straight to stay in the lead. But the Isle of Man resident was never too far behind and took the lead at Aintree Corner, which saw Sykes fall back down the grid. But his French team-mate was still in contention for the win but could not lap as fast as Rea, who was lapping two seconds faster than the rest of the pack. Aprilia’s Sylvain Guintoli took advantage of the changing weather conditions to go third followed by fellow Frenchman Fixi Crescent Suzuki’s Jules Cluzel.

By lap nine the two Leon’s, Haslam and Camier, who both did not have the best of starts started to make an impact and found themselves in fifth and sixth place. Haslam, who is still recovering from a broken leg, could not match the pace of Camier and slipped to seventh, but Camier was not put off by the drizzle and was soon lapping quicker than Baz and Guintoli. With five laps to go Camier was up to third.

Laverty also began to make a charge after falling back to seventh but with three laps remaining over took Baz at Brooklands and had his sights firmly set on Camier. On the final lap the battle between the Irishman and Englishman ensued with Camier going up to second after overtaking Baz at Becketts with Laverty following suit, but then Aprilia proved too strong and at Stowe Corner Laverty took second from birthday boy Camier.

Guintoli came across the finishing line in fourth, followed by Baz, Cluzel and Haslam. GoldBet BMW’s Chaz Davies was as high as fourth on the second lap but fell back to eleventh and was in a battle with team-mate Marco Melandri for a top ten finish, with the Italian getting the better of the Welshman who finished in tenth place. Sykes ended the race in eleventh.

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