WorldSBK Qatar Superpole Race Results: Rea sprints clear for 16th win

Jonathan Rea will go head-to-head with Alvaro Bautista for the title of ‘winningest’ rider of the 2019 WorldSBK season after securing his 16th win of the year in the WorldSBK Qatar race.

The Kawasaki Racing rider continued his dominance of the season’s latter half with another exemplary lights-to-flag success in the shorter Superpole Race, unusually held in dusky conditions at Losail.

The victory draws him level with Bautista in terms of victories this season and with Bautista working his way up to second position, the pair are well placed to dice it out in the final race of the 2019 WorldSBK season.

A better performance from Bautista, whose strong start from seventh allowed him to utilise his Ducati’s top speed advantage during the crucial early stages, he picked his way up to second place but finished two seconds down on Rea.

Alex Lowes held off a feisty Leon Haslam – the rider he replaces at Kawasaki next season – to go a long way to assuring himself third in the standings. The Briton holds a ten-point advantage over Michael van der Mark with a maximum of 25 available from race two.

After his charging ride in race one, Chaz Davies could only climb from 12th to fifth this time but is smartly placed for race two now, while van der Mark got the better of Yamaha counterpart Loris Baz in their fight for sixth, the pair followed by another R1 rider in Sandro Cortese.

Eugene Laverty secured ninth and therefore a spot on the front three rows for race two, holding off Marco Melandri, Leandro Mercado and Tom Sykes, the BMW rider plummeting from a starting position of fourth.

Elsewhere, Toprak Razgatlioglu’s hopes of finishing third overall were all but ruined by a technical issue before the start, the Turk now 24 points behind Lowes and starting last in race two.

WorldSBK Qatar Superpole Race Results