Kawasaki’s Tom Sykes won the first World Superbike race of the weekend after leader Chaz Davies crashed from the lead and championship leader Jonathan Rea ran into him.
While Sykes went on to win the race on Saturday at Misano track, Davies retired but Rea managed to remount his Kawasaki and finish third behind the Yamaha of Alex Lowes.
“All I can say is we were at our limit, understood it and stayed there. And luckily for us in the last laps the other riders around us started to make some mistakes and some got unlucky, but overall 25 points is good,” he said.
Earlier in the race, there had been two other crashes. Italy’s Marco Melandri had crashed while fighting for a podium place. He continued but finished 15th.
Dutchman Michael van der Mark crashed out and retired seven laps before the end having led most of the race.
Jordi Torres and Xavi Fores of Spain completed the top five.
The second race of the weekend takes place on Sunday, June 18.