Rea does the Phillip Island double – again!

Northern Ireland's Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki) has won his second world superbike race at Phillip Island this weekend after outlasting Ducati arch-rival Chaz Davies in another nail-biter.

As was the case in yesterday's race one, it all boiled down to an incredibly tight duel between Rea and Davies on the final lap.

The ice-cool Rea bested his fellow Briton by 0.025 seconds, with his combined winning margin over Davies in the two 22-lap races just 0.067 seconds.

Marco Melandri (Ducati) was third in race two as he banked some points after a crash in the opener.

FULL RESULTS HERE

Phillip Island is a home away from home for Rea, who is married to Phillip Island’s Tatia Weston and spends summer at the island. And when he wins at the circuit it's even more special.

"To win two last-lap battles here is pretty tough so I am so happy," said Rea. "We worked so hard in the off-season to work on tyre conservation, and my rear tyre still looks good on the left side after race two so that bodes well for the rest of the season.

"I just wanted to come here and start my year in a good way, and to leave with 50 points is very nice."

It's the second consecutive clean sweep for Rea at the flowing GP circuit, and he now also joins Carl Fogarty, Aussie Troy Bayliss and Noriyuki Haga in the exclusive WorldSBK 40-race winning club.

Rea won from ninth on the grid in race two as a revised grid formation made its debut in WorldSBK, which saw the top three finishers in race one starting from the third row of the grid in race two; riders who finished in positions 4-6 starting from the front row; and riders who finished in positions 7-9 starting from the second row.

The new arrangement saw Lowes on 'pole position', with Leon Camier (MV Agusta) and Xavi Fores (Ducati) alongside him.

Lowes was the early leader, and Eugene Laverty (Aprilia) also had a small taste of life at the front, but before too long Rea, Davies, Lowes, Fores and Melandri were in command.

Melandri, returning to WorldSBK after a two-year break, finished 0.249 seconds behind Rea, while Lowes made it consecutive fourth places on the massively improved Yamaha.

Xavi was fifth, from world No. 2 Tom Sykes (Kawasaki), Michael van der Mark (Yamaha), Camier, Lorenzo Savadori (Aprilia) and Laverty.

Australia's wildcard Josh Brookes brought his Yamaha home in 12th position after he retired with overheating issues in race one. Brookes finished just on the tail of Alex de Angelis (Kawasaki).

Nicky Hayden (Honda) was DNF after crashing at turn 10, while Jordi Torres (BMW) retired with a technical problem.

Rea takes 50pts into round two in Thailand from March 10-12, ahead of Davies (40), Lowes (26), Sykes (26), Fores (21), Camier 19), van der Mark (16), Melandri (16), Laverty (14) and Torres (9).