Haslam, Checa salute

Leon Haslam (Suzuki Alstare) and Carlos Checa (Althea Ducati) have taken a win apiece in the opening round of the World Superbikes at Phillip Island on Sunday.

In dry conditions and in front of 65,500 fans, the action was intense in each 22-lap race, with the leading three riders finishing within 0.769 seconds of each other in race one and the leading four within 0.837 seconds in race two.

It was a photo finish in the opening race to split Haslam from his rival Michel Fabrizio (Ducati Xerox).

After the officials spent some time examining the footage, the win was eventually given to Hashem by 0.004, the first of his career.

Noriyuki Haga took his Ducati Xerox machine to third after being part of the leading battle throughout.

Jonathan Rea, Max Biaggi, Sylvain Guintoli and Checa battled it out over fourth place, with Jakub Smrz, Troy Corser and Lorenzo Lanzi completing the top ten.

Checa (Althea Ducati) won a thrilling race two at Phillip Island by just 0.307 from Haslam, whom he passed on the final section of the track.

Third went to Michel Fabrizio, and a great ride from new SBK rider Sylvain Guintoli put him fourth on his Suzuki Alstare machine in only his fourth ever SBK event.

Noriyuki Haga was fifth, Jonathan Rea finished in sixth, soming back through the field after losing ten seconds by running wide on lap one.

Troy Corser took his BMW to seventh in race two.