Jonathan Rea caps record-breaking season with World Superbike treble at Losail

Rea, who secured an unprecedented fifth consecutive world crown at Magny-Cours in France in September, followed up his victory in Friday’s race with a further two wins on Saturday under the floodlights at the spectacular desert venue.

The Kawasaki rider had to fight off Ducati’s Alvaro Bautista in the final race, but Rea had enough in hand and was able to edge clear to secure his 17th win of the campaign, which was one more than Spaniard Bautista’s tally on the Panigale V4.

Welsh rider Chaz Davies got the better of team-mate Bautista to claim the runner-up spot as he crossed the line 2.9 seconds behind Rea, who was also a treble winner at his home round of the championship earlier this season at Donington Park.

Fourth went to Alex Lowes on the Pata Yamaha, who finished 1.8 seconds ahead of Toprak Razgatlioglu (Puccetti Kawasaki), while Eugene Laverty rounded out the top six as he completed his final race on the team Go Eleven Ducati ahead of his move to Shaun Muir’s factory-backed BMW Motorrad team.

Earlier, Rea notched up his 16th win of the year as he beat Bautista by two seconds in the Superpole race, with Lowes in third.

The Ulsterman ends the season with 663 points with Bautista in second place on 498 points.

Lowes secured third on 341 points, edging out his Pata Yamaha team-mate Michael van der Mark (327).