Rea sees off Davies, Lowes to win Qatar opener

Full Qatar World Superbike Race 1 results

Jonathan Rea has notched up his 15^th win of the season in the Qatar World Superbike opener after battling Alex Lowes early on before keeping clear of a late charge from Chaz Davies, as Kawasaki seals the manufacturers’ title.

The reigning world champion enjoyed the perfect getaway from pole position in front of Lowes to dictate the pace as he and the Pata Yamaha bolted clear of the chasing pack.

With Davies carving through the field from 12^th place on the starting grid, having made it up to fifth place on the opening lap, the Aruba.it Racing Ducati rider used the opening two-thirds of the race to catch up with Lowes before taking second place with a smart block pass at the final corner on Lap 12.

But Rea duly responded to the attack from Davies to keep clear of the Welsh rider to charge to victory by over two seconds.

The win sees Kawasaki wrap up a fifth consecutive World Superbike manufacturers’ title with two races to spare.

As Davies had to settle for second place Lowes duly completed the podium for Pata Yamaha to tighten his grip on third place in the riders’ standings.

Further back Alvaro Bautista couldn’t catch the fight at the front and had to settle for fourth place for Aruba.it Racing Ducati.

Leon Haslam won a race-long tussle with Michael van der Mark to take fifth place on the Kawasaki ahead of the Pata Yamaha rider, with Loris Baz just missing out in seventh place for Ten Kate Racing Yamaha.

Markus Reiterberger impressed for BMW in eighth place to take his best result since Assen, with team-mate Tom Sykes tangling with the rear of Haslam’s Kawasaki at Turn 1 on the second lap to tumble out of contention.

Eugene Laverty (Team Goeleven Ducati) saw off Leon Camier (Moriwaki Althea Honda) to take ninth place, while Toprak Razgatlioglu recovered to 11^th place after running off track on Lap 11 which saw the Puccetti Kawasaki rider initially drop from seventh to 13^th place.

With Marco Melandri in 12^th place for GRT Yamaha, Michael Ruben Rinaldi (Barni Ducati), Ryuichi Kiyonari (Moriwaki Althea Honda) and Alessandro Delbianco (Althea Honda) rounded out the points places.

Dominic Schmitter narrowly missed out on points in 16^th place on his wildcard appearance.

Leandro Mercado stopped on Lap 6 with a mechanical issue with his Orelac Racing Kawasaki, while Sandro Cortese crashed out of fourth place on Lap 5. Jordi Torres missed the start of the race after he crashed on the warm-up lap.