After he edged out Troy Herfoss (Ducati), and Yamaha YZF-R1M riders Mike Jones and Cru Halliday in qualifying, Waters blitzed the Race 1 start and set the pace in front as Herfoss struggled to get off the line.

There was early disaster for Ted Collins (BMW) whose race only lasted two corners before he was cannoned into by another rider and crashed out.

Waters led from Jones, Voight (Ducati), Pearson (Ducati) and 16-year-old rookie Cameron Dunker (Yamaha YZF-R1). Voight ran wide at Turn 4 on Lap 2 as a result and dropped to sixth.

The 17-year-old Voight rallied, initially he battled with Dunker and then worked his way back to second by Lap 8 with a new lap record (1:30.790) in the process.

Waters won the race, his sixth in the last nine Phillip Island races, by 1.25s over Voight who was followed by Herfoss, Halliday, Jones, Pearson, Anthony West (Yamaha) and Dunker.

“That was a really good race and a great reward for all the effort the team is putting in to continually improve every time we go out,” said Waters. “After I pulled out a good lead, I just played it safe as I had no idea how the tyres were going to wear.

“I’m really happy but we’ve got two races to go and I’m under no illusions how hard tomorrow is going to be. But for now, we’ll enjoy this one.”

Glenn Allerton (BMW 1000 RR) and Max Stauffer (Yamaha) completed the top 10, while Arthur Sissis (Yamaha) was the other DNF.

Jonathan Nahlous (Yamaha) won the Michelin Supersport races. He led all the way to beat Mark Chiodo (Honda) who passed Olly Simpson (Yamaha) for second in Race 1. In the next Nahlous and Chiodo diced before Nahlous pulled away for a second solid win as Jack Mahaffy (Yamaha) placed third.

In Race and Road Supersport 300, Czech Petr Svobodo (Kawasaki) picked up his second victory after Friday’s first race success.