Race 1 was declared wet even if the sun was shining at Brno, but the track was very damp in certain sectors that slowly dried out after four or five laps, but it was Marco Melandri after a cautious start and two braking errors who took a late victory and his fourth win of the season.
Completing the podium were both Kawasaki factory riders, Tom Sykes and a hard riding and excellent Loris Baz who took his maiden podium.
Most the top riders were very cautious with their starts, but not pole sitter Tom Sykes who got the holeshot and chosing completely different lines to keep his lead, but coming in from the outside were Loris Baz (15th) and Maxime Berger (19th) who inserted themselves into the top five on the first lap surprising everyone and even more surprising was the Liberty rider who took the lead on the second lap and for several laps he retained the head of the race and had almost a three second lead but he started to fade due to intermediate tire choice.
Davide Giugliano was running in second and he crashed out on lap four due to the same tire choice of the French rider.
Tom Sykes grabbed the lead from a fast fading Berger on lap 8 and right behind him Jonathan Rea and Baz were fighting for the third position that went to Rea while Carlos Checa put a hard pass on Melandri on the ninth lap as the track quickly dried out and lap times dropped with Eugene Laverty joined the front runners.
Jonathan Rea took the second spot and began pressing Sykes as were Baz, Checa, Laverty and Melandri.
The BMW rider took fifth passing Laverty on the 15th laps while Checa passed Baz for third and then the Kawasaki rider found himself in fifth as Melandri overtook him.
The Italian was a man on a mission as he passed Checa at turn 5 on the 17th lap and one lap later got past Rea taking the second spot.
With two laps to go Melandri grabbed the lead and Rea tangled with Sykes as the Kawasaki man ran slightly wide as with Rea tryingto pass through, but Skyes closed the door and Rea found himself hitting the tarmax and Carlos Checa having to take evasive tatics to avoid the tumbling Rea, Baz pouncrf to take advantage of Checa’s troubles and he picked up the final podium.
Carlos Checa finished in fourth ahead of Eugene Laverty and Max Biaggi who rode to a lonely sixth after disposing of Leon Haslam and Michel Fabrizio.
Berger faded to 9th and he finished ahead of his team mate Jakub Smrz who closed out the top ten.
The race was marred by a horrific looking crash by Leandro Mercado on lap 12, after he touched Hiroshi Aoyama’s rear tire when the Japanese rider passed him at turn 1 and the the two went down with Mercado briefly caught on the Honda.
WSBK Brno Race 1 Results:1.
Marco Melandri (BMW Motorrad Motorsport) BMW S1000 RR 41′59.
8082.
Tom Sykes (Kawasaki Racing Team) Kawasaki ZX-10R 42′01.
1683.
Loris Baz (Kawasaki Racing Team) Kawasaki ZX-10R 42′01.
7564.
Carlos Checa (Althea Racing) Ducati 1098R 42′02.
3025.
Eugene Laverty (Aprilia Racing Team) Aprilia RSV4 Factory 42′03.
6406.
Max Biaggi (Aprilia Racing Team) Aprilia RSV4 Factory 42′06.
9477.
Leon Haslam (BMW Motorrad Motorsport) BMW S1000 RR 42′11.
1018.
Michel Fabrizio (BMW Motorrad Italia GoldBet) BMW S1000 RR 42′11.
7539.
Maxime Berger (Team Effenbert Liberty Racing) Ducati 1098R 42′18.
79610.
Jakub Smrz (Liberty Racing Team Effenbert) Ducati 1098R 42′18.
92511.
Chaz Davies (ParkinGO MTC Racing) Aprilia RSV4 Factory 42′22.
74612.
Alessandro Polita (Red Devils Roma) Ducati 1098R 43′05.
45413.
Norino Brignola (Grillini Progea Superbike Team) BMW S1000 RR 43′05.
54114.
Leon Camier (FIXI Crescent Suzuki) Suzuki GSX-R1000 43′08.
05615.
John Hopkins (FIXI Crescent Suzuki) Suzuki GSX-R1000 43′11.
92816.
Lorenzo Zanetti (PATA Racing Team) Ducati 1098R 43′12.
86517.
Viktor Kispataki (Prop-tech ltd) Honda CBR1000RR 42′58.
31918.
David Salom (Team Pedercini) Kawasaki ZX-10R 43′25.
422RT.
Jonathan Rea (Honda World Superbike Team) Honda CBR1000RR 37′58.
877RT.
Leandro Mercado (Team Pedercini) Kawasaki ZX-10R 22′40.
739RT.
Hiroshi Aoyama (Honda World Superbike Team) Honda CBR1000RR 22′40.
853RT.
Davide Giugliano (Althea Racing) Ducati 1098R 10′28.
947RT.
Ayrton Badovini (BMW Motorrad Italia GoldBet) BMW S1000 RR