In Race 1 of WorldSBK at Imola second win of the season for Chaz Davies and an excellent début for the rear soft development solution brought by Pirelli

With the race red flagged on the thirteenth lap due to a bad crash byLaverty, the Ducati riding Welshman wins the first race of the weekend ahead of Rea's Kawasaki and teammate Marco Melandri

Race 1 podium

Ducati rider Chaz Davies won the first MOTUL FIM World Superbike Championship race of the weekend at the Enzo and Dino Ferrari circuit in Imola. The team Aruba.it Racing – Ducati Welshman, after taking pole position in the morning, won Race 1 ahead of the Kawasaki ridden by Jonathan Rea, defending World Champion and current leader in the overall standings, followed by Davies' teammate, Italian Marco Melandri, who finished on the third step of the podium. The race, dominated by Davies from start to finish, was stopped before all nineteen laps could be raced due to a bad crash involving the team Milwaukee Aprilia rider during the fourteenth lap after contact with Alex Lowes (Pata Yamaha Official WorldSBK Team).

Chaz Davies	Marco Melandri

There were also good results for Pirelli, able to gather important information from this race, albeit with less laps than foreseen, on the solutions brought to Imola. In particular, the new V0602 rear development solution in soft compound that the riders had never used in a race until today proved to be the most used solution on the rear. It will therefore be interesting to see its potential in Race 2 and possibly in subsequent rounds of the Championship.

Chaz Davies action	Group action

WorldSBK Race 1 standings: 1) C. Davies (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) 2) J. Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team) 3) M. Melandri (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) 4) T. Sykes (Kawasaki Racing Team) 5) X. Forés (BARNI Racing Team) 6) L. Camier (MV Agusta Reparto Corse) 7) M. Van Der Mark (Pata Yamaha Official WorldSBK Team) 8 ) A. Lowes (Pata Yamaha Official WorldSBK Team) 9) R. Ramos (Team Kawasaki GoEleven) 10) S. Bradl (Red Bull Honda World Superbike Team) 11) A. De Angelis (Pedercini Racing SC-Project) 12) L. Savadori (Milwaukee Aprilia) 13) R. Krummenacher (Kawasaki Puccetti Racing) 14) R. De Rosa (Althea BMW Racing Team) 15) A. Badovini (Grillini Racing Team) 16) O. Jezek (Grillini Racing Team) RT) E. Laverty (Milwaukee Aprilia) RT) R. Russo (Guandalini Racing) RT) N.Hayden (Red Bull Honda World Superbike Team) RT) L. Mercado (IODARacing) NS) J. Torres (Althea BMW Racing Team)

Tyres selected at the start

Pirelli statistics for WorldSBK Race 1: • Winner of the PIRELLI BEST LAP AWARD: Chaz Davies (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati),in 1'46.393 at the 3^rd lap • Most used front solution: standard SC2 (10 out of 20 riders) • Most used rear solution: development SC0 V0602 (12 out of 20 riders) • Maximum race speed reached by Pirelli DIABLO™ Superbike tyres: 282.3 km/h, achieved by Chaz Davies (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) in the 8^th lap • Number of solutions (dry, intermediate and wet) for the Superbike class: 7 front and 6 rear Number of tyres available for each WorldSBK rider: 78, including 44 front and 34 rear • Air temperature: 24° C • Asphalt temperature: 50° C

Group action	Marco Melandri

Jonathan Rea	Chaz Davies