Eugene Laverty won race two at Phillip Island this afternoon.

Irishman Eugene Laverty has turned the tables on his Aprilia factory teammate Sylvain Guintoli to win the second World Superbike race at Phillip Island’s season-opening round this afternoon.

Laverty sat behind Guintoli for most of the race and even dropped back to third behind Marco Melandri (BMW) at one stage, before making his decisive move with four laps to go.

He confirmed his intentions with a new lap record of 1:31.168secs just a short time later. The previous lap record of 1:31.323 was set by Michel Fabrizio (Aprilia) in race one.

Guintoli finished 0.418s behind Laverty in the 22-lapper, while BMW-backed Melandri – who crashed in race one after being taken out by Ducati’s Carlos Checa – completed the race in third, but not before a minor scare when Fabrizio tapped the back of his bike at turn nine on the last lap.

Fabrizio remained upright to finish fourth, with the top eight was completed by Tom Sykes (Kawasaki), Davide Giugliano (Aprilia), WSBK rookie Jules Cluzel (Suzuki) and Jonathan Rea (Honda).

Rea’s teammate Leon Haslam was ninth, but had to fight his way back trough the pack after a lap one melee which also involved Loris Baz (Kawasaki) and Chaz Davies (BMW).

Checa wasn’t on the grid fort race two after his heavy crash in race one, after which he was flown to hospital in Melbourne for observation.

Australian pair Glenn Allerton (BMW) and Jamie Stauffer (Honda) were 12th and 13th respectively in race two.

Laverty and Guintoli lead the championship on 45 points apiece, ahead of Fabrizio (29), Sykes (22), Melandri (16) and Rea (16). The next round will be held in Aragon, Spain from 12-14 April.

Meanwhile, the Victorian Minster for Tourism and Major Events, The Hon Louise Asher, announced this morning a three-year contract extension for Phillip Island to continue to host the Australian World Superbike round until 2017.

A total of 61,500 spectators attended this year’s WSBK round over the three days.

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