Sepang WSBK: Hayden takes first win since 2006 in wet Race 2

Starting from the second row, Hayden quickly worked his way past Yamaha's Alex Lowes and then made short work of Kawasaki duo Tom Sykes and Jonathan Rea.

The latter settled into second in the first half of the reason but, unable to keep up with Hayden, he started to feel pressure from the Ducatis of Chaz Davies and Davide Giugliano.

The reigning champion soon dropped back to fourth, with Giugliano also passing Davies for the runner-up spot.

Despite leading by four seconds, Giugliano carved into Hayden's lead during the final laps to finish just a second behind the American.

Rea repassed his championship rival to claim third, with Davies settling for fourth.

World Superbike debutant Anthony West secured an impressive fifth, with Hayden's teammate Michael van der Mark battling his way to sixth.

The Dutchman beat Alex de Angelis to the spot, the latter still taking his best finish in the series.

Polesitter Sykes spent the first half of the race in sixth and lost a further two spots to only end up eighth, followed by Leon Camier and Markus Reiterberger.

Lowes quickly found himself in the lower reaches of the top 10 from second on the grid - and subsequently crashed out.

Race results:

Pos.	Rider	Bike	Time/Gap
1	Nicky Hayden	Honda	37'04.047
2	Davide Giugliano	Ducati	1.254
3	Jonathan Rea	Kawasaki	3.684
4	Chaz Davies	Ducati	5.720
5	Anthony West	Kawasaki	15.989
6	Michael van der Mark	Honda	19.979
7	Alex de Angelis	Aprilia	20.028
8	Tom Sykes	Kawasaki	23.011
9	Leon Camier	MV Agusta	24.045
10	Markus Reiterberger	BMW	25.139
11	Xavi Fores	Ducati	25.208
12	Josh Brookes	BMW	25.835
13	Jordi Torres	BMW	26.757
14	Lorenzo Savadori	Aprilia	30.729
15	Josh Hook	Kawasaki	1'05.347
16	Gianluca Vizziello	Kawasaki	1'17.761
17	Luca Scassa	Ducati	1'18.121
18	Paweł Szkopek	Yamaha	1'31.412
19	Dominic Schmitter	Kawasaki	2'07.000
20	Saeed Al Sulaiti	Kawasaki	2'08.836
21	Imre Toth	Yamaha	1 Lap
Ret	Alex Lowes	Yamaha