If there were ever concerns from within the Aprilia camp that there could be no fitting replacement for the retired Max Biaggi, the first round of 2013 suggested the manufacturer could in fact have
two worthy successors to its champion in Eugene Laverty and Sylvain Guintoli following their resounding 1-2 results in Australia.
Of course no firm conclusions can possibly be drawn just two races into a potential 30 race season, but Guintoli and Laverty's win apiece at Phillip Island was notable for the fact it appeared to come fairly easily.
Indeed, perhaps more so than previous years, there was no obvious favourite for the first races despite several days of pre-season testing, practice and qualifying, yet Guintoli's methodical rise up the order in race one and Laverty's startling late form in race two shows Aprilia are not missing its number one rider just yet.
A strong day for Aprilia all round,
Michel Fabrizio looks to have found a comfortable home at Red Devils Roma after a couple of indifferent seasons with Suzuki and BMW, while Marco Melandri showed he isn't lacking in grit as he secured a podium despite the pain from his persistent shoulder injury.
Also suffering through the pain threshold, Tom Sykes picked up a pair of respectable fifth places in the circumstances, while Jonathan Rea actually holds sixth overall after one round despite finishing no higher than eighth in either race.
Elsewhere, it was a tough start to the year for the new Alstare-run Ducati 1199R, which lost out in luck what it was gaining in speed following Carlos Checa's race one wipe-out and subsequent race two withdrawal, while Ayrton Badovini didn't start at all due to a broken foot.
Chaz Davies and Loris Baz picked up strong finishes in the first race of the season, only to collide in race two, while Leon Haslam showed pace that belied his results. On the plus side, his seventh place in race one was the first time Rea has been beaten inside the top ten by another Honda rider since 2009…
Other notable results included Jules Cluzel salvaging a fine seventh on an otherwise troublesome
WSBK debut weekend, while two of the series' returnees - Max Neukirchner and Ivan Clementi – were point-scorers in Australia, the latter picking up a 12th place finish in his
WSBK first race for seven years.
In all, 16 of the anticipated 19 full-time riders would get off the mark in Australia, plus the two wild-card riders Glenn Allerton and Jamie Stauffer.
2013 eni World Superbike Championship rider standings 1.
Sylvain Guintoli Aprilia Racing
45 points1=.
Eugene Laverty Aprilia Racing
453.
Michel Fabrizio Red Devils Roma Aprilia
294.
Tom Sykes Kawasaki Racing
225.
Marco Melandri BMW GoldBet Motorrad
166.
Jonathan Rea Pata Honda
167.
Leon Haslam Pata Honda
158.
Jules Cluzel Fixi Crescent Suzuki
149.
Leon Camier Fixi Crescent Suzuki
1410.
Chaz Davies BMW GoldBet Motorrad
1311.
Max Neukirchner MR Ducati
1112.
Davide Giugliano Althea Aprilia
1013.
Loris Baz Kawasaki Racing
1014.
Glenn Allerton Next Gen BMW
615.
Ivan Clementi HTM BMW
416.
Jamie Stauffer Honda Racing
417.
Alexander Lundh Pedercini Kawasaki
418.
Federico Sandi Pedercini Kawasaki
22013 World Superbike Championship manufacturer standings1.
Aprilia 50 points
2.
BMW 29
3.
Kawasaki 22
4.
Honda 17
5.
Suzuki 16
6.
Ducati 11