Pata Honda rider Jonathan Rea finished as runner-up in this evening’s final World Superbike race of the season at Losail in Qatar, securing third place in the championship, as French rider Sylvain Guintoli took the title with a double race victory.

Rea had finished in fourth place in the first 17-lap outing under floodlights at the 5.380km Losail International Circuit after a blistering start on his Pata Honda CBR1000RR Fireblade SP from seventh place on the grid.

In race two, Rea got another great launch off the grid and led the race in the early stages before dropping back to third. However, knowing that he had to fight for every available point, Rea got back past outgoing champion Tom Sykes to finish three seconds behind Guintoli and take third place in the series by a single point from Marco Melandri.

Rea’s Pata Honda team-mate Leon Haslam finished race one in 11th place after struggling with front end grip throughout the 17 laps, but the British ace had to fight even harder for tenth place in race two.

After a good start from sixth place on the grid, the 31-year-old was forced off the track at the first corner by Frenchman Loris Baz and had to recover from last position. His hard-fought finish leaves Haslam seventh overall in the final points standings.

Jonathan Rea - 4th and 3rd

I’m really, really happy and what a way to finish the season here in Qatar under the lights. With the atmosphere here, hanging around the hotel pool during the day, it just makes me realise how lucky I am to have this amazing job and to be here. I just want to thank my team for putting their best efforts in this year - they gave me a bike that I could really enjoy riding and we’ve developed the CBR a lot through the year. And at the end of the season I was really happy to finish a lot on the podium and to take back third in the championship. I’m really happy for that and it sets me up for next season in a really good way.

Leon Haslam - 11th and 10th

At the start of race two, Baz was going to wipe about five riders out and he came right across me. I had to lift up because he was going to hit me and we both went off the track. Coming through from last place to tenth wasn’t the best way to finish the season but we certainly made some good changes to the bike from race one to race two. We should probably have opted for the softer tyre like everyone else and I ended up in a bit of a lonely race in tenth for the last few laps. But it was fun coming through the field in the first part of the race and we secured seventh in the championship which was the main thing. The results have been a little disappointing but I think we’ve all worked really well this weekend and just had a bit of bad luck.

Pieter Breddels - technical co-ordinator

What an exciting day it’s been, taking third place in the championship after two fantastic races. In the first race, Jonathan finished just off the podium after battling all race long but he closed the gap to Melandri to six points for third in the championship. In race two he had another fabulous start and led for a while, finally fighting with Sykes for a lot of laps for a place on the podium. But it was also a race-long battle for third in the championship. Leon’s evening was a little more difficult and he had a front tyre problem in the first race. Race two was a lot better in terms of performance, but he had some problems with Baz at the beginning, which compromised his result. But it was great to see him so determined to fight back through the field after that.


Event results - Round 12- Race 1

1 Sylvain Guintoli 33'46.738 FRA APRILIA Aprilia Racing Team
2 Loris Baz 2.650 FRA KAWASAKI Kawasaki Racing Team
3 Tom Sykes 3.955 GBR KAWASAKI Kawasaki Racing Team
4 Jonathan Rea 4.805 GBR HONDA Pata Honda
5 Davide Giugliano 7.861 ITA DUCATI Ducati Superbike Team
6 Toni Elias 8.192 SPA APRILIA Red Devils Roma
7 Chaz Davies 8.991 GBR DUCATI Ducati Superbike Team
8 Marco Melandri 10.512 ITA APRILIA Aprilia Racing Team
9 Eugene Laverty 15.978 IRL SUZUKI Voltcom Crescent Suzuki
10 Alex Lowes 21.456 GBR SUZUKI Voltcom Crescent Suzuki
11 Leon Haslam 25.977 GBR HONDA Pata Honda
12 Niccolo Canepa 29.085 ITA DUCATI Althea Racing
13 David Salom 29.096 ESP KAWASAKI Kawasaki Racing Team
14 Sylvain Barrier 39.270 FRA BMW BMW Motorrad Italia SBK
15 Bryan Staring 43.360 AUS KAWASAKI IRON BRAIN Kawasaki SBK Team
16 Jeremy Guarnoni 46.206 FRA KAWASAKI MRS Kawasaki
17 Geoff May 1'16.323 USA BIMOTA Team Hero EBR
18 Imre Toth 1 Lap HUN BMW BMW Team Toth


Event results - Round 12- Race 2

1 Sylvain Guintoli 33'41.803 FRA APRILIA Aprilia Racing Team
2 Jonathan Rea 3.568 GBR HONDA Pata Honda
3 Tom Sykes 5.092 GBR KAWASAKI Kawasaki Racing Team
4 Marco Melandri 8.305 ITA APRILIA Aprilia Racing Team
5 Chaz Davies 8.390 GBR DUCATI Ducati Superbike Team
6 Toni Elias 8.654 SPA APRILIA Red Devils Roma
7 Loris Baz 9.115 FRA KAWASAKI Kawasaki Racing Team
8 Davide Giugliano 13.015 ITA DUCATI Ducati Superbike Team
9 Alex Lowes 13.478 GBR SUZUKI Voltcom Crescent Suzuki
10 Leon Haslam 25.471 GBR HONDA Pata Honda
11 David Salom 37.964 ESP KAWASAKI Kawasaki Racing Team
12 Niccolo Canepa 38.001 ITA DUCATI Althea Racing
13 Bryan Staring 46.248 AUS KAWASAKI IRON BRAIN Kawasaki SBK Team
14 Claudio Corti 51.926 ITA MV AGUSTA MV Agusta RC-Yakhnich Motorsport
15 Alessandro Andreozzi 56.331 ITA KAWASAKI Team Pedercini
16 Geoff May 1'23.937 USA BIMOTA Team Hero EBR
17 Imre Toth 1 Lap HUN BMW BMW Team Toth


Championship standings

1 Sylvain Guintoli 416 pts FRA APRILIA Aprilia Racing Team
2 Tom Sykes 410 pts GBR KAWASAKI Kawasaki Racing Team
3 Jonathan Rea 334 pts GBR HONDA Pata Honda
4 Marco Melandri 333 pts ITA APRILIA Aprilia Racing Team
5 Loris Baz 311 pts FRA KAWASAKI Kawasaki Racing Team
6 Chaz Davies 215 pts GBR DUCATI Ducati Superbike Team
7 Leon Haslam 187 pts GBR HONDA Pata Honda
8 Davide Giugliano 181 pts ITA DUCATI Ducati Superbike Team
9 Toni Elias 171 pts SPA APRILIA Red Devils Roma
10 Eugene Laverty 161 pts IRL SUZUKI Voltcom Crescent Suzuki
11 Alex Lowes 139 pts GBR SUZUKI Voltcom Crescent Suzuki
12 David Salom 103 pts ESP KAWASAKI Kawasaki Racing Team
13 Niccolo Canepa 73 pts ITA DUCATI Althea Racing
14 Jeremy Guarnoni 45 pts FRA KAWASAKI MRS Kawasaki
15 Sylvain Barrier 40 pts FRA BMW BMW Motorrad Italia SBK
16 Leon Camier 37 pts GBR BMW BMW Motorrad Italia SBK
17 Claudio Corti 27 pts ITA MV AGUSTA MV Agusta RC-Yakhnich Motorsport
18 Sheridan Morais 24 pts RSA KAWASAKI IRON BRAIN Kawasaki SBK Team
19 Alessandro Andreozzi 22 pts ITA KAWASAKI Team Pedercini
20 Fabien Foret 20 pts FRA KAWASAKI MAHI Racing Team India
21 Lorenzo lanzi 19 pts ITA DUCATI 3C Racing Team
22 Bryan Staring 18 pts AUS KAWASAKI IRON BRAIN Kawasaki SBK Team
23 Max Neukirchner 17 pts GER DUCATI 3C Racing Team
24 Luca Scassa 16 pts ITA KAWASAKI Team Pedercini
25 Gabor Rizmayer 7 pts HUN BMW BMW Team Toth
26 Glen Allerton 6 pts AUS BMW BMW Motorrad Italia SBK
27 Riccardo Russo 5 pts ITA KAWASAKI Team Pedercini
28 Kervin Bos 5 pts NED HONDA Winteb LiquidRubber Racing T.
29 Imre Toth 5 pts HUN BMW BMW Team Toth
30 Michel Fabrizio 2 pts ITA KAWASAKI IRON BRAIN Kawasaki SBK Team
31 Roamin Lanusse 1 pts FRA KAWASAKI Team Pedercini
32 Peter Sebestyen 0 pts HUN BMW BMW Team Toth
33 Nicolas Salchaud 0 pts FRA MV AGUSTA Dream Team Company
34 Geoff May 0 pts USA BIMOTA Team Hero EBR
35 Christian Iddon 0 pts GBR BIMOTA Team Alstare
36 Aaron Yates 0 pts USA BIMOTA Team Hero EBR

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