Can anyone beat Rea?
Triple victory sees Johnny cement his WSB status
Jonathan Rea sent out a clear message to the rest of the World Superbike field as the five-times world champion utterly controlled proceedings to seal a Qatar treble. Not only did the Kawasaki star beat Ducati’s Alvaro Bautista to 17 wins for the season but he also warned his rivals that his ZX-10RR is only getting better. In addition to setting a new lap record at the floodlit Losail International Circuit, Rea also climbed to 88 WSB wins after sealing three more victories across Friday and Saturday. Staggeringly, of the 146 WSB wins Kawasaki has achieved in total since 1988, the Ballyclare man has collected 73 – the same as the previous 12 Kawasaki winners combined. “It’s been incredible,” hailed the 32-year-old, who remains in Qatar until Thursday for a short holiday with his family. “It’s really hard to lead here, especially with the wind being as strong as it was. The grip was there but in the final race I couldn’t break away as I had in the previous two. Chaz (Davies) and Alvaro (Bautista) were keeping me honest. I saved some tyre and, with seven laps to go, really put my head down.” Rea dedicated the success to his grandmother, to whom he had promised one last 2019 win as she has been suffering from ill-health. In order to achieve this, significant modifications were made in readiness for the final 17lap encounter.
“We changed the swingarm between Friday and Saturday, then changed the length of the swingarm and some other details on the bike between the Saturday races! It was all to conserve our tyre. I felt really good.
“I’m so thankful to the team and can’t put into words the season we’ve had. To win the most races was a goal I thought we could never achieve. But with persistence and hard work, it has paid off.”
Rea and Kawasaki have been unbeatable since their working relationship commenced in 2015, successfully sealing a maximum total of 15 world crowns in the five seasons since thanks to their Riders’, Manufacturers’ and Teams’ title accomplishments. But the weekend in the desert was somewhat less enjoyable for fellow Kawasaki riders Leon Haslam and Toprak Razgatlioglu. The Englishman fell to seventh in the championship behind Chaz Davies after finishing fifth, fourth and ninth.
The Turk, meanwhile, had tried to grab third from Yamaha’s Alex Lowes and Michael van der Mark but mustered a best result of fifth in Race 2. He was 11th in Race 1 after an off-track excursion and failed to start the Sprint Race due to an electrical problem. He joins van der Mark at Yamaha next year, while the smart money is on Haslam joining Bautista on the new HRC Honda Fireblade.