Charpentier takes Supersport victory.

Winston Ten Kate Honda's Sebastien Charpentier took his first win of the World Supersport season at Phillip Island today.

Charpentier slipped back down the field after a bad start but worked his way back up the field to take the lead in the early laps.

Yamaha Motor Germany's Kevin Curtain followed the French man through to second place and challenged the Honda rider throughout the race, although never managing to make an overtaking manoeuvre stick.

"Once I got in the lead a couple of times I didn't know how I did it as yesterday we had a lot of grip problems with the rear," admitted Curtain. "But the guys found something over night and the team worked real good. It was a real gamble going into the race because we were going into a race with something we hadn't tested before."

Throughout the race a battle raged between Megabike Honda's Fabien Foret and Michael Fabrizio and Charpentier's team-mate Katsuaki Fujiwara.

Foret finally got the final podium position over Fujiwara, with Fabrizio having machine difficulties which put him out of the race with only a few laps to go.

"I had a big high-side this morning turn one in the wet conditions," commented Foret after the race. "So it was difficult for me, and at the end of the race it especially was difficult."

Supersport top ten
1. Charpentier
2. Curtain
3. Foret
4. Fujiwara
5. van den Goorbergh
6. Stigefelt
7. Parkes
8. Chambon
9. Lauslehto
10. Cogan