Kawasaki’s Jonathan Rea converted his WorldSBK pole into the Superpole race win and lap record at Losail today, taking a relatively straightforward victory over Alvaro Bautista with Yamaha’s Alex Lowes in third.
Rea got his customary holeshot into turn one and never looked back while Bautista tried to push his way through but ran wide. This allowed Haslam to slot into third behind Lowes but it didn’t take long for the little Spaniard to elbow his way past for second.
Lowes was finally third but only after a tough race long defence against Leon Haslam (Kawasaki Racing Team), who just missed out on a podium finish in fourth.
Chaz Davies (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) could not repeat his astounding Race One start and eventual climb to second place, scoring fifth in the Superpole Race for a fifth place grid slot in the final contest of the season, scheduled for 20.000 local time in Qatar today.
Michael van der Mark (Pata Yamaha WorldSBK Team) had trouble with Loris Baz (Ten Kate Racing Yamaha) in the Superpole race, finishing sixth but having to re-pass the tall Frenchman on the final lap to do so.
With Baz seventh, Sandro Cortese (GRT Yamaha) was eighth, Eugene Laverty (Team GoEleven Ducati) ninth and Marco Melandri (GRT Yamaha) tenth. Tom Sykes (BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team) was 12th and Toprak Razgatlioglu (Turkish Puccetti Racing) was a non-starter after a late technical problem.
In the last main battle left to be decided, Lowes extended his advantage in third place over VDM to 10 points and over the non-starting Razgatlioglu to 24. One race to go…
