Rea does the double at Phillip Island

Kawasaki’s Jonathan Rea took his 40^th career victory after once again edging Ducati’s Chaz Davies in a thrilling second World Superbike race at Phillip Island.

For the first time, the series’ reversed grid format was put into action with Yamaha’s Alex Lowes taking the lead from pole ahead of Milwaukee Aprilia’s Eugene Laverty and the Barni Ducati of Xavi Fores.

Rea and Davies, despite starting from the third row, were quick to carve their way through the pack and get onto the battle for the podium, with the Northern Irishman hitting the front on lap six.

The battle for the rostrum raged on between Rea, Davies, Lowes, Fores and, as of lap 10, the second Aruba Ducati of Marco Melandri. The Italian, setting a blistering pace to move through the field, took the lead from Rea on lap 12.

Top spot swapped hands for the remainder of the race, with Rea and Davies entering the final corners line astern as Melandri fended off Lowes for third.

Davies, like he tried yesterday, tucked right into Rea’s tow but was denied a first win of 2017 by just 0.025s, whilst his team-mate took his first rostrum since France 2014. Lowes and Fores rounded out the top five.

Tom Sykes also had to come from row three, but was unable to make the same kind of progress as the top two and finished a distant sixth ahead of Yamaha’s Michael van der Mark.

Leon Camier brought the MV Agusta home a respectable eighth, with Lorenzo Savadori taking the spoils in the battle of the Aprilias in ninth ahead of Laverty, who plummeted down the order in the early stages.

Alex De Angelis held off a hard-charging Josh Brookes for 11^th, with Markus Reiterberger, Roman Ramos and Stefan Bradl the last of the points finishers.

Three riders failed to make the finish. Nicky Hayden slid off of his Honda at Turn 10 just moments after Ayrton Badovini chucked his Grillini Kawasaki in the gravel trap of Turn 6 early in the race.

Ricardo Russo fell from his Yamaha on lap three, whilst Jordi Torres didn’t even make the start after encountering a technical issue with his Althea BMW.