The opening race of the Pirelli Malaysian Round of the eni FIM Superbike World Championship at Sepang was won by championship leader Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki RAafter a race of two halves saw long-time leader Tom Sykes (Kawasaki Racing Team) slip to 5th at the flag.

After 5 laps the gap from Sykes in the lead to the chasing pack was 2.6s with Chaz Davies (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati SBK Team) and Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team), who had made the best start of anyone (8th to 3rd at turn 1) in hot pursuit. Sykes meanwhile was the only rider seemingly able to lap consistently in the 2.04s bracket.

As the race settled into a rhythm and with Sykes continuing to pull away the closest on track fight was between the Aprilia pairing of Leon Haslam and Max Biaggi who were dicing for 5th and 6th.

With 4 laps to go it appeared the Davies and Rea’s tyres were holding up better than those long-time leader Sykes, the pair reducing the gap to less than a second – the race suddenly blown wide open as firstly Davies then Rea passed the former champ.

At the flag Rea recorded his 12th win of the year with Davies coming home second ahead after the pair swapped places three times on the final lap, twice at the final corner.

Max Biaggi (Aprilia Racing Team) claimed a historic 71st podium finish in 3rd, the Italian extending his own record of being the oldest rider to ever stand on a WorldSBK podium.

Sylvain Guintoli claimed a season best 4th after his Pata Honda appeared to be kinder to its tyres while Poleman Sykes dropped to 5th after setting a blistering pace that saw him shatter the lap record in the early stages.

Alex Lowes was 6th aboard the Voltcom Crescent Suzuki ahead of Leon Haslam (Aprilia Racing Team), Althea Racing pairing Matteo Baiocco and Niccolo Canepa, and Jordi Torres (Aprilia Racing Team) who dropped from what looked like a safe 4th to 10th in the final few laps.

David Salom (Team Pedercini), Randy de Puniet (Voltcom Crescent Suzuki), Leon Camier (MV Agusta Reparto Corse), Roman Ramos (Team Go Eleven) and Leandro Mercado (Barni Racing) completed the point scorers.

Michael van der Mark retired his Pata Honda after running inside the top ten.

Race 2 will start at 4.30pm local time and run once again over a duration of 16 laps at the 5.543km Sepang International circuit.