Saturday’s racing at the Spanish Round saw Jonathan Rea register his first victory as the recently crowned 2017 WorldSBK champion, taking advantage of a late technical issue for provisional race leader Marco Melandri.

With his first ever win at Jerez, Rea was joined on the podium at the end of a restarted Race 1 at Round 12 by Chaz Davies and Tom Sykes.

On his way to equaling Carl Fogarty’s career podium record of 109 rostrum results in WorldSBK Rea took over at the front after Melandri pulled off with a problem with four laps to go.

Rea had taken control of the restarted race in the early stages and led for several laps before Melandri made a move with 13 laps to go at turn 9 up the inside of the Northern Irishman. Davies then followed Melandri through to overtake Rea, but Rea soon responded to retake the Welshman and slot back in behind the Italian.

As Melandri chased his second race win in 2017, since his return to WorldSBK at the start of the year, cruel luck saw him pull off towards the end of the race, leaving Rea to take the glory.

Sykes produced a solid ride in third place as he continues to recover from wrist and finger injuries sustained in Portugal in September, with Davies crossing the line just under 0.5s ahead of him in second.

It was another strong performance from Alex Lowes as he collected more good points on the Yamaha YZF R1, crossing the line fourth, 3.677s ahead of his teammate Michael van der Mark who was fifth.

2014 World Champion Sylvain Guintoli’s return to action on the Kawasaki ZX-10RR saw him finish a creditable sixth, in the first of four races he will ride for the Kawasaki Puccetti Racing at the final two rounds of the season.

The top ten was rounded out by Milwaukee Aprilia duo Lorenzo Savadori and Eugene Laverty and Spanish pair Xavi Fores and Roman Ramos - in seventh to tenth places respectively.

Turn 13 proved to be unlucky for Takumi Takahashi as he lost the front end of his Honda CBR1000RR, though he picked it up to finish 16^th. Takahashi’s Red Bull Honda World Superbike Team colleague Davide Giugliano was an unfortunate late retiree.

In the initial race start a turn 6 crash on the first lap involving Ayrton Badovini and Raffaele de Rosa (Althea BMW Racing Team) brought out the red flags.

After a short break the race was recommenced with a quick restart procedure with the riders keeping their focus in the clear conditions in Andalusia on the resurfaced Jerez track, though neither Badovini nor De Rosa made it back onto the grid.

Race 2 for the WorldSBK riders at the Pirelli Spanish Round takes place at 1pm on Sunday.

With the new track surface the main talking point on the opening day of the Pirelli Spanish Round this weekend, the Pata Yamaha Official WorldSBK duo of Michael van der Mark and Alex Lowes were able to impress with a top six finish on Friday.

Dutch rider van der Mark ended the day in the top three, and was only 0.599s behind Friday’s fastest man Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team). Once the 24 year old was able to understand how the Pirelli tyres were working around the Circuito de Jerez, he soon got to grips with the pace of his YZF-R1 as he changed very little with his machine. Hoping this pace will carry forward to Saturday, van der Mark was understandably pleased with his time of 1.40.890.

“I am really happy with P3 today,” beams van der Mark. “This morning we started at a normal level and then we improved, it as quite difficult with the track being quite dirty. From this morning to this afternoon we didn’t change anything, to see what the track conditions were like. I went out this afternoon and did some ok lap times, I tried some hard tyres and it wasn’t great, then we changed something on the softer tyre and got some strong times at the end of FP2. I’m really happy with the bike because we didn’t change much and I feel consistent, so I am happy for day one. I am enjoying having the warm weather back, and it will be interesting tomorrow and I think we have a good pace and will work well with the tyres”

British team-mate Lowes is also happy with his pace, as he is impressed with the new tarmac around the 4.5km circuit. Ending the session just over half a second behind Rea, with a time of 1.40.891, Lowes has taken some positive from today and is searching for a small change to find a few extra tenths. Continuing with his positive attitude, he believes Saturday will depend on consistency, and is keen to fight.

Lowes: “I feel good, the surface on the track has reacted really well, the bike is feeling quite comfortable. I have a few things to improve, but I am looking forward to tomorrow. We do so many laps of Jerez over the winter, as soon as there is a change you notice it straight away,  but the surface is great and let’s see if we can make some small change and find a couple of tenths. Today the tyre were dropping quote a lot, so I think it’s going to be about consistency. I know I can keep the bike going and I want to keep fighting at the front.”

British team-mates Jonathan Rea and Tom Sykes completed the opening day at the Spanish Round at the top of the timesheets, as the pair are continuing to find some strong pace with the ZX-10RR.

Having never won around the Circuito de Jerez in the past, Rea’s target for the weekend is to take the victory in Spain, and if he is able to feel comfortable with his front tyre on his ZX-10RR then he will ensure a strong Saturday in Spain. Despite a crash at turn eight, Rea was still able to end the opening day with a strong lap time but hopes to wake up feeling fully fit on Saturday.

“It was a pretty big crash,” begins the 2017 world champion. “I had some huge impact to my elbow and my shoulder, after my Magny-Cours crash my shoulder was a little bit tender. It was a strange crash because it caught me completely off guard, the asphalt on that corner is tearing up a lot, but we put some more traction control in that corner and we continued with the plan to test the tyres."

"I think the rear is going to be fine, and with three options for the front tyre, it gives different results in the hotter temperatures. The new tarmac has so much grip and gives me a lot of confidence. They key is to wake up not too sore in the morning, we just need to understand the front tyre, our pace is really fast here in Jerez but we just need to look at the tyres. Let’s hope that we can cross the T’s and dot the I’s.”

British team-mate Sykes had a steady start to his weekend but put in a really strong lap time at the end of FP2, meaning he was able to finish in second position overall. Putting his improvement of pace down to the warmer temperatures we experienced in the afternoon around Jerez, the Yorkshire born rider is feeling comfortable on his green machine. A lap time of 1.40.888 put him just 0.597s behind his team-mate as he looks forward to improving his pace on Saturday.

Sykes explained: “We’ve been working steady in FP1, finding different parameters with the bike and not pushing too much. FP2 was a lot hotter, similar to the heat we’ll be racing in and in the end the bike cam together. I’m happy with the performance today, and we put some good information in, so we will try and improve a bit tomorrow we’ve got a strong set up on the ZX-10RR."

"Tomorrow is another day and I’m looking forward to it, the new tarmac is really smooth here on my injured hand and I’m really enjoying it. My fitness on the bike is not a problem but when I close my hand the outside fingers don’t do the job, the difficulty is the change of direction but for sure the hard bit is the race start but I just need to get on with it and no problem for race distance.”