Debutante Alvaro Bautista has stunned with a clean sweep of all three races in the opening round of the Superbike world championship at Phillip Island.
Repeating Saturday's longer race effort, the 34-year-old Spaniard started from the front row of the grid on his Ducati and was untouchable.
He increased his lead by about one second per lap over the battling Kawasaki pair of Jonathan Rea and Leon Haslam, and coasted over the finish line to make it three wins from as many starts.
As well as clinical victories in the weekend's two 22-lap races, Bautista also prevailed in the all-new 10-lap sprint race, which was held earlier on Sunday.
In the final race, Rea finished second ahead of Haslam and the Yamaha trio of ichael van der Mark, Alex Lowes and Marco Melandri.
Chaz Davies (Ducati), Sandro Cortese (Yamaha), Eugene Laverty (Ducati) and Leon Camier (Honda) rounded out the top 10.
With Bautista doing as he pleased at the front, the main interest in race three was the hard and clean battle between Rea and Haslam, with Melandri also latched onto the Kawasaki pair for a number of laps.
Rea managed to build a small but decisive break on the final lap, while Melandri ultimately succumbed to van der Mark and Lowes.
Sixteen riders made the distance in race three, with Australian Troy Herfoss (Honda) and Toprak Razgatlioglu (Kawasaki) pulling out with mechanical issues, while Alessandro Delbianco (Honda) crashed.
The next round will be from March 15-17 at the Chang circuit in Thailand.
WORLDSBK CHAMPIONSHIP AFTER ROUND ONE OF 13:
* 1. Alvaro Bautista, Ducati, 62 points
* 2. Jonathan Rea Kawasaki 49
* 3. Marco Melandri Kawasaki 30
* 4. Alex Lowes Yamaha 30
* 5. Michael van der Mark Yamaha 29
* 6. Leon Haslam Kawasaki 24
* 7. Sandro Cortese Yamaha 19
* 8. Chaz Davies Ducati 15
* 9. Tom Sykes BMW 12
* 10. Eugene Laverty Ducati 12.
Australian Associated Press
