Rea caps World Superbike season with 17th win for Qatar hat-trick

Full Qatar World Superbike Race 2 Results

Jonathan Rea has completed his championship-winning 2019 World Superbike campaign with his 17^th win to tie up a hat-trick of victories in Qatar.

Rea initially traded overtakes for the lead with Alvaro Bautista, with the pair tied on 16 wins so far this year, before breaking the Aruba.it Racing Ducati rider by mid-race distance to begin to build a comfortable lead.

Bautista spent the rest of the race fighting team-mate Chaz Davies for second place to allow Rea to ease to a Losail International Circuit hat-trick and his 17^th win of the season – matching the record outright for most wins in a single season from his own effort in 2018 and Doug Polen’s 17 wins in 1991.

The win also sees Rea overhaul Bautista for most wins across the season in the final race of 2019 while sealing his fifth world title by 165 points.

Davies held off Bautista for second place in the sprint to the chequered flag, as Alex Lowes captured third place in the overall riders’ championship thanks to fourth place on his final outing for Pata Yamaha.

Toprak Razgatlioglu sealed a clean sweep of Independents’ titles on his final outing for Puccetti Kawasaki in fifth place with Eugene Laverty enjoying a late surge to sixth place for Team Goeleven Ducati for his best result since Aragon.

With Michael van der Mark in seventh place for Pata Yamaha, Loris Baz capped his year in eighth place for Ten Kate Racing Yamaha as Leon Haslam suffered a late race fade to ninth place on his final race for Kawasaki.

Sandro Cortese completed the top 10 on his last race for GRT Yamaha ahead of Leandro Mercado on the Orelac Racing Kawasaki and Tom Sykes on the BMW.

With Jordi Torres in 13^th place for Pedercini Kawasaki, Markus Reiterberger (BMW) and Michael Ruben Rinaldi (Barni Ducati) rounded out the points places.

Leon Camier ended his year with Moriwaki Althea Honda in 16^th place in front of the retiring Marco Melandri who struggled in his final race as a professional racer.

Ryuichi Kiyonari completed the finishers for Moriwaki Althea Honda as wildcard Dominic Schmitter and Althea Honda’s Alessnadro Delbianco failed to see the chequered flag.