Jonathan Rea: World Superbike Champion for the second year in a row

After breaking the track record to take Superpole, the Northern Irishman romped to a second WSB crown after race one in Qatar finishing second on track to Ducati rider Chaz Davies.

Rea arrived at this last round with a 48-point advantage over his team-mate Tom Sykes, who had to settle for fourth place in the race and an eventual second place in the championship overall.

In Superpole, Rea made it abundantly clear straight away that he was eager to end the battle for the title as soon as possible and, with a time of 1:56.356, not only did he take the best position on the starting grid, but he also broke the track record – set by Sykes in 2015 – by almost half a second.

Rea became the first rider since Carl Fogarty in 1999 to win successive World Superbike crowns with his second-placed finish in race one. But he was still thinking clearly enough a day later during race two to ensure that Kawasaki ended the year one-two in the championship standings.

Rea ran off the track on the opening lap on Sunday and rejoined near the back of the field as Davies led from Sykes. A red flag for oil on the track gave Rea the chance to close the gap and he stormed his way through the field to put the pressure on Davies.

A thrilling finish was in store until Rea slowed to allow Sykes through and leave him two points ahead of Ducati rider Davies, who chalked up his 11th win of the campaign.

Rea said: "It really is incredible to have won back-to-back championships. It is very raw right now because I have not had time to take it in.

"This season we have ridden and developed a new bike. It's like a baby in its development, so I'm confident with a winter of testing and additional development we can come out even stronger in 2017.

"Three titles would be nice and that's the goal in 2017, but first I need to let number two sink in."