Britain's Jonathan Rea Wins First Race of Qatar Round

Doha, October 27 (QNA) - Britain's Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK) has won the first race of the Pirelli Qatar Round and matched Doug Polen's record for the most race victories in a single season, with 17 additional laps still to go tomorrow at the Losail International Circuit. He also moves to within just 12 points of the highest points tally in one WorldSBK season. The 2018 MOTUL FIM Superbike World Champion was absolutely untouchable out on the Qatari circuit, getting the holeshot at the lights and never relinquishing the race lead. Tom Sykes (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK) completed a KRT one-two, with Alex Lowes (Pata Yamaha Official WorldSBK Team) getting the better of Eugene Laverty (Milwaukee Aprilia) for third position after a race-long battle. A dream start for the Northern Irishman pushed him into first place before even arriving to turn 1, while Laverty and Lowes jostled behind to see who could follow the Kawasaki bikes. The Aprilia's incredible top speed on the kilometre-long straight was Laverty's best weapon all throughout the race, using the slipstream to move into third after lap one. With Rea managing a comfortable two-second gap over his teammate and both riders a step above the rest in terms of consistency, all eyes were set on the Yamaha and Aprilia battle behind. Lowes moved ahead in lap 6 but was again beaten on the front straight three laps later. It all came down to an epic last lap battle where they rubbed shoulders all the way through, including a brave final pass from the Englishman at turn 12. Laverty tried to return the favour on the final turn but nearly lost the front end, handing Lowes the final podium position. There is a silver lining for the Aprilia rider however: he starts from P1 on tomorrow's grid. Xavi Fores (Barni Racing Team) followed the front quartet with a confident race all the way to the final lap, but late issues pushed him down to thirteenth to the benefit of Marco Melandri (Aruba.it Racing - Ducati). The Italian takes fifth position and will start his last race for the Borgo Panigale squad from the front row of the grid. The last two laps at Losail saw one of the wildest battles of the season, as Chaz Davies (Aruba.it Racing - Ducati), Michael van der Mark (Pata Yamaha Official WorldSBK Team) and Loris Baz (GULF Althea BMW Racing Team) raced side-by-side for that final front row spot. The Frenchman was triumphant in this war, taking sixth position with the Yamaha in seventh, while Davies nearly lost eighth position on the final straight to Jake Gagne (Red Bull Honda World Superbike Team), ninth. Toprak Razgatlioglu (Kawasaki Puccetti Racing) closed the top ten, with Lorenzo Savadori (Milwaukee Aprilia) in a disappointing eleventh after starting from the second row. Vice President and General Manager of Losail Circuit Sports Club (LCSC) Khalid Al Rumaihi expressed his delighted over the high level of professionalism in the Qatar Round, the 13th and final round of the Super Bike and Super Sport under the floodlights at Losail International Circuit. In a press statement, Al Rumaihi said that the competition is strong to decide the title of the Super Sport between the two riders German Sandro Cortese and French Jules Cluzel, with the difference of five points in the lead. He added that the Super Bike was decided by the British champion Jonathan Rea before the Doha round, but he continued to outperform today after winning the title of the first race to record his eleventh consecutive win and seventeenth this season. Al Rumaihi stressed that the continuous success of the Qatar Round of the world motor bike championship is attributed to the efforts of all government agencies and partners, especially the Ministry of Culture and Sports. He said that Qatar is well known in organizing motor tournaments, especially as it also hosts the opening round of the MotoGP world championship. (END)