Davies finishes ahead of champion Rea

British rider Chaz Davies last night produced an electric performance to top the timesheets after the two free practice sessions at the final round of the 2019 MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship.

Winner of one three races at the US Grand Prix in July, Davies outpaced five-time world champion Jonathan Rea as he navigated with blistering speed at the flood-lit Losail International Circuit where the season ends tomorrow with round 13.

The 32-year-old Briton, who has been twice a winner at Losail and looks like he could be on course to repeat that this weekend, last night clocked a time of 1m 57.449 to finish his free practice ahead of Rea who posted 1m 57.722. Rea topped the timesheets in the first session with a time of 1’58.010 in his 17 laps.

Davies said yesterday: “It was a bit of a surprise, to be honest. The bike’s not that good after the crash on the second lap. I didn’t start with confidence but we worked on the bike between the two sessions. And it worked.

The guys did a great job. The set-up we need isn’t that far. So I am pretty happy. Normally it starts slippery (in Qatar). The start wasn’t bad today. I feel by Saturday the track will be well used. I am confident of turning in a little better tomorrow. We have a good idea on the bike so far.”

In third place yesterday was this season’s biggest surprise, former MotoGP rider Alvaro Bautista who clocked 1m 57.767. The 34-year-old was down in seventh after the first session but come the end of FP2, he was up in third.

Turkey’s rising star Toprak Razgatlioglu, who had shadowed Rea in the first session, clocked 1m 58.028 on his Kawasaki ZX-10RR. Razgatlioglu was fourth fastest from yesterday’s action.

Rea said after the two practice sessions yesterday: “I think we will be even faster. Being here in the desert, the track is incredible. You need a little bit of time to get in and the cool thing here is it gets faster and faster. Maybe some of the problems we experienced today or the limitations we had will better when the tracks gets used. Then we will have the matching speed we are looking for.”

Dutchman Michael van der Mark (Pata Yamaha), was placed fifth fastest in a time of 1m 58.157 while British duo Tom Sykes (BMW WorldSBK Team, 1m 58.255) and Alex Lowes (Pata Yamaha, 1m 58.303) emerged as the sixth and seventh best riders.

Germany’s Markus Reiterberger (BMW WorldSBK Team, 1m 58.459), Sandro Cortese (GRT Yamaha, 1m 58.503) and Frenchman Loris Baz (Ten Kate SBK Yamaha, 1m 58.566) completed the top-10 from last night’s exciting free practice.  

Having led to the opening session of the weekend, Rea was right back in the mix of things and ready for battle in FP2. The Northern Irishman was in second for the majority of the session and that is where he would finish come the end of proceedings, with the five-time World Superbike Champion working solidly on his race pace.

After a top three performance in FP1, Razgatliolgu set his sights on third place overall in the Championship in the best way possible. The 23-year-old from Alanya is in a strong position to overhaul those ahead of him in the Championship and completed the first day of Qatar action in fourth. There were plenty of other Independent riders inside the top ten, with Cortese in ninth and Baz in 10th.

Closely matched in the Championship and closely matched after yesterday’s action, the Pata Yamaha WorldSBK Team duo of Alex Lowes and Michael van der Mark continue to squabble on their last weekend in the same team. Van der Mark had the upper hand and was up in fifth place, whilst Lowes was seventh when the chequered flag came out. Both are in a fierce battle for third with Razgatlioglu and will thus need to work together in order to bring Yamaha the bronze medal position.

The BMW charge in Qatar was led by 2013 WorldSBK Champion Sykes, who spent most of the session down in 15th place, before firing in a good lap time with less than eight minutes to go, putting him in sixth.