The opening race of the day at the Misano World circuit Marco Simoncelli was won by Tom Sykes (Kawasaki Racing Team) who converted his 27^th Pole Position into his 25^th career win in front of an enthusiastic crowd.

Leading from the start, Sykes led all 21 laps, coming home ahead of team mate and championship leader Jonathan Rea and Chaz Davies (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati SBK Team) who delighted the Italian fans around the circuit with an incredible final lap duel for 2^nd position. Davies lunged past Rea into the final corner only to run wide, being passed again on the run to the flag by Rea.

Davide Giugliano put the second official factory Ducati into 4^th, the Italian running 2^nd for the majority of the 21 lap encounter before being overhauled by the British pairing of Rea and Davies in the final two laps. He did however claim a new lap record, which he set on lap 3.

Leon Haslam (Aprilia Racing Team – Red Devils) was unable to show the pace he had in qualifying coming home 5^th, 0.1s ahead of the returning Max Biaggi (Aprilia Racing Team) who had a steady ride to finish 6^th. The six time World Champion survived a heart stopping moment on the opening lap when he collided with Sylvain Guintoli (Pata Honda World Superbike Team).

Guintoli would eventually finish 9^th after fighting for the full 21 laps with Ayrton Badovini (BMW Motorrad Italia), Michele Pirro (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati SBK Team) who finished 7^th and 8^th, and his own Pata Honda team-mate Michael van der Mark who finished just behind the Frenchman in 10^th.

The final point scorers were Leandro Mercado (Barni Racing), Alex Lowes (Voltcom Crescent Suzuki), Leon Camier (MV Agusta Reparto Corse), Roman Ramos (Team Go Eleven) and Matteo Baiocco (Althea Racing).

Jordi Torres (Aprilia Racing Team – Red Devils) was running in the leading group before crashing at turn 3 on the 3^rd lap. The WorldSBK rookie was physically annoyed with himself as he walked back to the pits.

Race two will start at 1310 local time.