The unstoppable Jonathan Rea led from lights to flag to win Race 1 in the Qatar round of the World Superbike Championship at the Losail International circuit last night. The world champion’s 15th win of the season also secured a fifth consecutive manufacturers’ title for Kawasaki with two races to spare.
Ducati’s Chaz Davies made a late push for victory but Rea never lost his lead for the entire 17 laps and put on a masterful performance under the lights. “I started in a rhythm and at the pace I was comfortable with and kept it there and stuck to the plan,” said Rea after the victory.
The Northern Irishman had won last three races in Qatar – two in 2017 and one in 2018, after rain forced the cancellation of second race. The victory took Rea to within one of Spaniard Alvaro Bautista’s win tally for the season, with today’s Superpole sprint race and second feature race to come.
With first and second in the title race already sorted out, all eyes were on the battle for third, with the three protagonists spread out across the top ten. Before yesterday’s race six points three riders, with Alex Lowes (Yamaha) on 305 points, Michael van der Mark (Yamaha) on 304, and Toprak Razgatlioglu (Turkish Puccetti Racing) on 299.
But with Lowes finishing third yesterday, the British rider took a seven-point lead over Yamaha teammate Michael van der Mark, who finished sixth, ahead of today’s races.
In a race that featured crashes and big changes of fortune for some top names Rea was a clear winner, by 2.732 seconds over Davies, who had started from 12th position. Alvaro Bautista (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) used all his V4R’s pace and power to rocket past some of his opponents on the long Losail straight, scoring an eventual fourth place from seventh on the grid.
Leon Haslam (Kawasaki) won a great battle with van der Mark for fifth place, in a tight final group which eventually included seventh-placed Loris Baz (Ten Kate Racing Yamaha).
Steaming off from pole position, Rea took the holeshot down into Turn 1, fending off a fast-starting Tom Sykes. However, Lowes and Sandro Cortese got ahead of the BMW rider and the front four were as they were. 
Rea and Lowes quickly broke away from the chasing Cortese and Davies, with the Ducati rider seizing third from the GRT Yamaha rider at Turn 7. The 2020 KRT teammates ran line astern for half the race, with the gap between Lowes and Rea hovering around the three-tenth mark.
Rea began to open his advantage out slightly to half a second by lap 10, while Davies wiped time out of Lowes over the next few tours. Davies moved ahead of Lowes at the final corner to begin the chase on Rea with five laps to go, and was thrown a chance when the Kawasaki rider had a moment through Turn 8 and ran wide at the corner after as a result.
This allowed Davies to close to within eight tenths of the lead, though Rea regrouped and soon had the gap back out to over a second to ease to the chequered flag to wrap up Kawasaki’s fifth-successive manufacturers’ championship.
Toprak Razgatlioglu was a factor in the battle for fifth with Haslam, van der Mark and Baz for much of the race, but the Puccetti rider ended up 11th after running off track at Turn 6 in the latter stages.
Leandro Mercado was forced to retire due to a mechanical issue with his Orelac Kawasaki, while Pedercini’s Jordi Torres didn’t even make the start after crashing at Turn 1 on the warm-up lap. 


Race results
1. Jonathan Rea (GBR) Kawasaki Time: 33’34.518 seconds
2. Chaz Davies (GBR) Ducati. 33’37.250 secs
3. Alex Lowes (GBR) Yamaha. 33’39.941 secs
4. Alvaro Bautista (ESP) Ducat.i 33’42.561 secs
5. Leon Haslam (GBR) Kawasaki. 33’52.238 secs
6. Michael van der Mark (NED) Yamaha. 33’52.256 secs
7. Loris Baz (FRA) Yamaha. 33’52.694 secs
8. Markus Reiterberger (GER) BMW 33’54.997 secs
9. Eugene Laverty (IRL) Ducati. 33’59.018 secs
10. Leon Camier (GBR) Honda. 34’03.838 secs
11. Toprak Razgatlioglu (TUR) Kawasaki. 34’07.684 secs
12. Marco Melandri (ITA) Yamaha. 34’09.191 secs
13. Michael Ruben Rinaldi (ITA) Ducati. 34’17.179 secs
14. Ryuichi Kiyonari (JPN) Honda. 34’24.538 secs
15. Alessandro Del Bianco (ITA) Honda. 34’29.003 secs
16. Dominic Schmitter (SUI) Yamaha, 34’43.100 secs
Retired: Leandro Mercado (ARG) Kawasaki 11 laps