Chaz Davies cruised to a second-successive race one win at the German World Superbike round, while Jonathan Rea extended his championship lead over Tom Sykes.
Davies had struggled throughout practice at the Lausitzring, and could only manage sixth on the grid in qualifying.
The Ducati rider transformed his poor Superpole performance with a blinding start from the second row, Davies jumping up to second at Turn 1 after Rea ran into the corner a fraction too hot.
The Welshman tucked in behind pole man Tom Sykes and moved ahead of him at Turn 2 on the second lap to take the lead, while Rea had recovered third from Marco Melandri.
Sykes soon fell to his team-mate, with Rea now hunting down Davies in front. The Kawasaki rider applied some pressure over the following laps, but could never get the gap between them lower than two tenths.
As the race wore on, Davies began to steadily eke out his advantage, pulling his gap up to seven tenths by lap 15 and further opening it out to over a second with just a couple of tours remaining.
The Ducati rider remained in control over the final lap to cruise to his fifth win of the year, with Rea 1.4 seconds up the road from team-mate Sykes to extend his standings lead to 63 points.
Melandri proved no match for the top three, the Italian dropping out of the podium battle in the very early stages. The Ducati rider took the chequered flag in a lonely fourth to secure pole for Sunday’s race.
Leon Camier moved ahead of Alex Lowes for fifth in the opening laps, though the Yamaha rider mounted a late charge to claim the position back.
However, the MV Agusta rider held firm to complete the top five, the British duo making up the rest of the front row for race two.
Lorenzo Savadori could not capitalise on his front row start and finished seventh. Jordi Torres was another poor starter from the top 10, the BMW rider plummeting to 17th on the opening lap.
The Spaniard valiantly reclaimed lost ground, but was denied a top eight result by countryman Xavi Fores on the Barni Ducati.
Eugene Laverty completed the top 10 on the second Milwaukee RSV4 after a troubled afternoon. The Northern Irishman plummeted through the field after he ran off track on the opening lap, forcing him into a recovery ride.
Laverty carved his way through the pack, but encountered an issue with his bike in the closing stages and dropped to 10th.
Leandro Mercado fended off Randy Krummenacher for 11th, with Markus Reiterberger, Roman Ramos and Michael van der Mark completing the points paying positions.
Seven riders failed to make the finish, with Raffele De Rosa, Riccardo Russo, Ondrej Jezek, Massimo Roccoli, Pawel Szkopek and Davide Giugliano joining each other on the sidelines.
Giugliano’s Honda team-mate Stefan Bradl was a non-starter after being declared unfit due to an elbow injury he sustained in a crash during Friday practice.
