Jonathan Rea celebrates on the podium after winning the first race of WorldSBK yesterday.
DOHA: World Champion Jonathan Rea last night looked in little trouble as he powered his way to a record-equalling 17th win of the season in Race 1 of the final round of the 2018 WorldSBK Championship.
The popular Briton - riding his trusted Kawasaki ZX-10RR - equalled the record set by American racing star Doug Polen. Rea now is just 12 points away from accumulating the highest tally in one WorldSBK season.
The 31-year-old, who started Race 1 from the second spot, now looks to set to create a new record of maximum wins in one season today when he gets on the bike for the final day’s of action of the season at Losail International Circuit (LIC).
Rea - with a time of 1’57.284 - finished ahead of Superpole winner and team-mate Tom Sykes who couldn’t overtake the World Champion in the 17-lap race. Sykes, 33, was 1.424 seconds adrift of the time set by Rea.
Yamaha’s Alex Lowes - who trailed Frenchman Eugene Laverty for most part of the race - yesterday ended in third place in a time of 1’57.868, only 3.705 seconds behind.
In an exciting battle for the third place, Lowes moved ahead of Laverty in the sixth lap but then ceded space to the latter on the front straight just three laps later. At turn 12 of the final lap under lights, Lowes went past Laverty to seal his third spot.
Rea was thrilled with yet another dominating show at the Losail Circuit.
“It was a fun race especially in the beginning,” Rea said after the exciting battle. “I must say in the last five laps, I seemed to have some issues with the front tyre which means we have some work tomorrow,” he added.
“I am so happy to have won my 17th race of the season. I am so fortunate to be in this position,” the Kawasaki star said. “I want to thank my team for putting me in this position and for being there for me all the time,” the Briton added.
Sykes, Rea’s stablemate at Kawasaki, seemed pleased with his second-placed finish.
“It’s not bad being second. It is always better to win but we did well,” Sykes said yesterday.
“We just couldn’t cope with the start today. We had good speed. All in all a good day’s racing for us,” the Briton said.
“He was too good again. We need to look at the final race (today). We got a podium today. I must say I enjoyed the race today,” he added.
Lowes, who overtook Laverty in the last lap, said: “It was a sensational race. It was a hard battle. I enjoyed this battle.
Hopefully we can improve for the final race and get some more points.”
Marco Melandri (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati), Loris Baz (GULF Althea BMW Racing Team), Michael van der Mark (Pata Yamaha Official WorldSBK Team), Chaz Davies (Aruba.it Racing), Jake Gagne (Red Bull Honda World Superbike Team) and Toprak Razgatlioglu (Kawasaki Puccetti Racing) completed the top-10.
With the 2018 championship title already with Rea, the battle for the second spot between Davies (356 points) and Van Der Mark (333) will be decided today.
Rea, who clearly has looked unstoppable in 2018, is sitting pretty with an unbeatable overall tally of 545 points.
