Jonathan Rea shrugged off any doubts about using an untried tyre in the opening WorldSBK race at Portimao, sprinting to a two-second lead in one lap and going on to build a seven-second gap over Chaz Davies to take his tenth victory of the 2017 season.
Rea now has a 95-point gap over Kawasaki team-mate Tom Sykes - who is out of action this weekend after a free practice crash - and now has one hand firmly on the title with seven races left to run.
But it was Leon Camier who provided all the thrills over the Portugese 20-lapper as the MV Agusta man picked his way from 11th on the grid after his bike broke in Superpole, posting laptimes faster than Rea in the closing stages to catch Marco Melandri with two laps left.
Camier had methodically pushed past the works-backed Yamahas and Milwaukee Aprilias before setting off after Melandri. The Kent-born rider closed to three-tenths on the final lap but just didn’t have enough to pass the former MotoGP rider, and admitted to making a couple of little errors that put the Ducati man out of reach. He did, however, say that with one more lap, he would have been in a position to make a pass. A small consolation is pole for tomorrow’s second leg.
Most of the front runners had to use a rear compound they hadn't tried this weekend as Pirelli withdrew their development soft rear on safety grounds. It didn't affect Rea, who launched off the line, dealt with Eugene Laverty into turn one and promptly cleared off into the distance.
Davies, who crashed in Superpole, had to come from ninth but lost no time in carving through the pack, taking second by half distance but didn't have the pace to do anything about Rea.
Both the Milwaukee Aprilias started well and Laverty held on to second until Davies passed him for second place. It looked like he then ran into rear tyre trouble as the Irishman, and team-mate Lorenzo Savadori, started to go backwards.
Laverty fell victim to Camier, Michael Van Der Mark and Jordi Torres to end in seventh place. The Dutchman had followed Camier through the field and looked to have enough pace to go with the MV man but tailed off to take fifth with Torres one place back.
Savadori salvaged eighth place ahead of Xavi Fores with Roman Ramos completing the top ten. Stefan Bradl started fast and carved a path to fifth place in the opening laps before crashing at turn 14 on lap three.
Alex Lowes had shown similar pace to his Pata Yamaha team-mate but fell foul of a big bump at the long hairpin, losing the front and going down. He did remount but pitted with seven to go.
