WorldSBK Qatar Race 1 Results: Rea holds off charging Davies in Losail

Jonathan Rea continued to notch up his tally of WorldSBK victories with a commanding performance in the first race of the final round in the WorldSBK Qatar, heading off a charging Chaz Davies.

The Kawasaki Racing Team rider powered into the lead from pole position and despite being tracked during the opening half of the race by future team-mate Alex Lowes, he was in control throughout to reel off his 15th win of the season.

The result places him just one-win shy of Bautista’s 16 victories from 2019, with two races remaining.

Aided by a strong getaway that hauled him up the order, Davies produced a powerful performance to claw his way up to second position from 12th on the grid, with Lowes making it three manufacturers on the podium in third.

A pivotal race for Lowes, he collected a healthy haul of points to give him a strong chance of locking down third in the overall standings after Michael van der Mark finished sixth and Toprak Razgtalioglu could only manage 11th after running off track

By contrast to Davies, Alvaro Bautista dropped from seventh to 11th early on before working his way back up the order but would eventually find himself in a lonely fourth place at the chequered flag.

Leon Haslam came out on top of an almighty tussle with van der Mark to grab fifth position, the pair shadowed all the way to the chequered flag by Loris Baz in seventh.

Markus Reiterberger secured his first top ten finish since Assen with a strong run to eighth, while Eugene Laverty and Leon Camier rounded out the top ten for Go Eleven Ducati and Honda respectively.

Tom Sykes suffered an early exit after getting caught out by Haslam out-braking himself into turn one on lap two, which led to him running wide and giving the BMW rider nowhere to go but clip the back wheel of the Kawasaki and tip off.

Sandro Cortese was also a high-profile casualty, the German running a comfortable fourth when he crashed at turn seven on lap six.

2019 WorldSBK Qatar – Race 1 Results