After a long winter break the World Supersport category sprang back into action around Phillip Island with Adrian Huertas on pole for the first time on a Ducati.

On the starting grid before the race began drama already struck as Bahattin Sofuoglu was moved to the back of the grid. Then Adrian Huertas was wheeled off of the grid due to bike issues but did manage to start the race.

As the lights went out it was Yari Montella and Marcel Schroetter who led the pack away from the start, until the R6 of Stefano Manzi joined the party.

The Italian rider of Manzi took the lead off of the Ducati and MV Agusta rider and began to try and set a rhythm of his own. But further back disaster struck for his team-mate Glenn van Straalen as he crashed out and collected Can Oncu as well.

Despite Huertas’ best efforts to get back into the race the Spaniard could not continue and had to pull back into the pit lane after not even completing a lap.

There were some early movers with Tom Booth-Amos making his way up to sixth place, Oliver Bayliss made his way to seventh and Sofuoglu who started from the pits made his way up to 13th.

A second Ducati withdrew from the race as Niki Tuuli had to pull into the pits and retire from the opening race of the season.

The lead finally changed with 11 laps to go, just before the mandatory pit-stop as Monetlla grabbed the lead off of Manzi. However, Manzi continued to fall as Schroetter and Valentin Debise continued to push the Italian back down the order from first to fourth in a few corners.

There were more crashes further down the order as Hikari Okubo and British rider, Booth-Amos, ended their races early.

The pit-stops began at the earliest point possible as the leader Montella dived into the pits with Manzi, who came in earlier than his team expected so were not ready for him. Due to the pit-stops Schroetter grabbed the lead from Debise and Jorge Navarro.

Montella and Manzi rejoined the race in 15th and 16th place, with the 14 riders ahead still needing to dive into the pits. Which happened the very next lap as Schroetter came in from the lead of the race, with only Sofuoglu, Yeray Ruiz, Anupab Sarmoon and Krittapat Keankum still left to make their stops.

Montella gained an enormous lead as he passed his fellow race rivals who were still in the pits and gained a six second lead. With Manzi and Schroetter back in second and third, with Bayliss in fourth place at home.

With seven laps to go Niccolo Antonelli and Lorenzo Baldassarri crashed out of the race as well. Disaster also struck for rookie Kaito Toba who was given a three second penalty for leaving the pits too soon after his mandatory pit-stop.

Back at the front Montella had extended his lead to 7.8 seconds with only four laps to go. However, the battle for second and third was hotting up as Manzi and Schroetter were knocking lumps out of each-other to try and secure second place.

It was an Italian 1-2 in the opening race of the season as Montella took the win from Manzi, with the German rider Schroetter in third. But home hero Bayliss finished in fifth place with British rider, John McPhee finishing in eighth place.