World Superbike organisers have confirmed race two and the sole World Supersport race at the ꦫ2018 season opener at Phillip Island will be made flag-to-flag races with mandatory pit stops after♔ a series of tyre failures.

Both the pre-🌊season test and Friday practice saw a number of tyres issues in both championships but race direction were confident the Pirelli rubber would be able to endure a full race distance which saw the opening 22-lap race completed o🅘n Saturday.

But a handful of riders saw a dramatic drop off in tyre life and performance in the closing stages of Saturday’s 2018 curtain-raiser, including Jonathan Rea who sunk out of podium contention and Michael van der Mark who limped to the finish in ninth place, which has en🃏forced race rule changes fo꧋r Sunday’s World Superbike race two and the sole World Supersport race.

World Superbike riders will be forced into a pit stop for a tyre changes on either lap 10, 11 or 12 of the 22-lap race, while World Supersport riders will come in on lap nine of the already-shortened 16-lꦺap race. Any riders who fail to adhere to the rule will be black-flagged and disqualified.

“Unforᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚtunately we had some issues regarding the tyre life,” World Superbike sporting director Gregorio Lavilla said. “Following a meeting with the teams to discuss the possible options, we decided the best way was to do a flag to flag, which luckily our rules comply with. We normally use it for climatic purposes,🍃 but now we are using it for other purposes, unless its rains.”

In 2013, former MotoGP tyre supplier Bridgestone suffered similar problems with tyre blowouts and were forced into requesting a flag-to-flag race at the Australian circuit. That year the MotoGP race was shortened from 27 laps to 19 laps with riders forced into a pit stop by lap 10 at Phillip Island, wh✃ich saw Marc Marquez and Bryan Staring disqualified for🗹 pitting on lap 11.