Kawasaki rider Jonathan Rea won the World Superbike opening race in wet, changing to dryer conditions at the 2022 Phillip Island season finale in Australia.
The Yamaha of Toprak Razgatlioglu (+6.247s) was second followed by Alex Lowes on the Kawasaki (+15.435s).
Initially group of four riders were fighting it out on wet tyres on a drying circuit, Rea was the first to come in to change to the slicks in the middle of the 22 lap race.
No long after Rea, Razgatlioglu also pitted for a tyre change, while both Lowes and Alvaro Bautista on the Ducati stayed out a bit longer.
After the tyre change Rea was in a class of his own and took the lead with eight laps remaining to hold a big gap over both Razgatlioglu and Bautista.
Bautista, who was recently crowned world champion, then lost out to both Lowes and Yamaha's Andrea Locatelli (+18.342s), who ended up finishing in fourth place ahead of Bautista (+19.369s). Ducati were still able to claim the constructors' title.
In sixth, was the Yamaha of Garrett Gerloff (+36.235s) followed by Axel Bassani (Ducati) (+37.641s) and the Honda of Xavi Vierge (+43.137s).
Closing out the top-10 was - ninth-placed Loris Baz (+57.704s) on the BMW and Honda's Tetsuta Nagashima (+1'01.086s).
Pedercini Racing's Kyle Smith, who at one stage led the race early on, finished 12th and was the highest-placed rider to finish the race on wet tyres.